Ardent Love
by Jinkun
Summary: Rei finds comfort in Chad after Darien unintentionally breaks her heart. Sparks fly and Rei realizes who she truly loves.
1. Mistaken Love

Ok you know the drill so let's get it over with. I do not claim to own Sailor Moon or any of its characters. This story has been thought up and written by me so everything you see here is original. This story has some sexual content, hence the R rating, so if you are too young or don't like that kind of stuff then I suggest you go read something else. The text written in parenthesis suggests thought, and anything written within asterisks suggests action. There are no songs in here so if you want you can think of your own song. Now that that's over with, let the story begin!  
  
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A new day approached. The sun was rising over the mountains giving the sky an orange and crimson tint. The wind was blowing a cool breeze over the heated Tokyo. Summer was growing near and the degrees just kept on climbing. Grandfather's dojo had its sliding doors open, hoping to catch a passing breeze. The cherry blossoms flashed their beautiful pink colors and the petals danced with the wind. Petals were scattered on the steps leading to the shrine, making it appear as if royalty had just passed through. Grandfather looked on from his window at the shrine's steps. He looked down and sighed as he shook his head. He folded his arms behind his back, bowed his head, and walked towards Rei's room.  
  
"Rei get up! . . Rei, come on, it is time to get up." No reply came. He put his ear to the sliding door and heard nothing. He knocked repeatedly and the put his ear back on the door. He heard an angry grunt emerging from within.  
  
"Ah, she is awake." He smiled with content, folded his arms behind him, bowed his head, and once again began walking, this time away from her room.  
  
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*Moan* Rei's eyelashes fluttered a bit; she was slowly awakening. She threw the sheets off her slender body and sat up on her bed. Her feet slowly descended towards the floor and her toes moved around in search of her slippers. Her arms went over her head and stretched. *Yawn* She stood up and looked at herself in the mirror. She wore a long, white button-down shirt that reached halfway down her thighs. Her hair was tied to the side with an orange band that she now slid off her silky hair. She scratched her arm and looked about the room. She was in search of something. The room was a mess and a trace of crumbs lay on her wooden floor. (Boy, this is the last time I'm inviting Serena over here! She eats like a pig and can't even pick up after herself) Sleepily, she walked to the other side of her room and picked up a towel from the floor.  
  
"Ah, I'll have to clean this all up later. Oh, that meatball head!" she whined with anger. She opened the sliding door to her room, stuck out her head, and looked left and right before exiting. She flung the towel over her shoulder, closed the door, and headed towards the bathroom. She filled up the white marble bathtub and dunked her hand in the water to make sure it was warm enough. The water was a little chilly. She looked out the bathroom window in search for Chad or Grandpa. Chad was outside practicing his moves. When he kicked, the air would whoosh. Rei stood there by the window staring, she stared until her vision blurred and she had to blink and shake her head.  
  
"Rei? Hey Rei?" a voice called her.  
  
"Oh Chad, I'm so sorry. I guess I was staring at the sunrise." She looked down at the ground outside and found Chad standing there.  
  
"Did you need something Rei?"  
  
"Oh, yea . what was it?" She tried to remember. "Oh that's right, could you please throw a little wood in the fire? The bathwater is ice cold."  
  
"Sure, no problem. I'll have that water hot for you in no time." He went to work straightaway throwing wood into the fire. Slowly but surely, the water heated up. Rei leaned over to the window and thanked Chad for his help. He smiled and went back to his training spot blushing. Rei sat on the edge of the bathtub, swishing her hand through the water. She finally stood up and began to unbutton her shirt with her back facing the window. Chad could not help but look. He knew it was wrong but there was nothing he could do about it.  
  
(No, look away, this is wrong. If she catches you watching her she's going to let you have it!) He groaned and looked away. (Well, in that case, you just can't let her catch you.) He grinned and moved closer to the bathroom window. He sat on the floor near a bush were Rei couldn't see him. She was down to the last button. *Snap* the last button was done. Her hands went up to her shoulders; she grabbed the shirt and gently threw it back. Her back was bare and the shirt was now on her waist. She pulled off one sleeve and then the other. The shirt hit the floor. Chad watched her and adored every inch of her body. Sadly he could only see up to her waist. Suddenly, she turned around. One arm was covering her breasts and the other was reaching for the latch on the window. It was out of reach. She had to lean out the window to reach the latch, pull the window in and lock it.  
  
She looked all around her, making sure no one was outside. Her arm let go of her breasts as her body leaned out the window, both arms out trying to reach the latch. Her long, black hair covered her bosom and Chad could not see. He didn't care, he was watching her. She reached the latch and closed the window. *Sighs* Chad looked away, he was breathing heavily and his heart was racing. He could hardly get up.  
  
"Hey Chad! How's it going?" a voice called from behind. Chad yelped in fear and got to his feet. He turned around and saw Darien's face.  
  
"Oh, Darien hi." He replied as calmly as he could. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"Rei told me she had some chores today and could not make it to school on time so I offered to give her a ride." "Oh, I see." He looked down in disappointment. "I'll go get her." He quickly went inside, shutting the sliding door behind him, nearly hitting Darien in the face.  
  
"What's up with him?" Darien wondered.  
  
Chad walked through the house until he reached the door to the bathroom. He knocked angrily on it. Rei was startled. She quickly got up and wrapped herself in her towel. She took one foot out of the tub. It dripped on the floor as the other foot soon joined. She walked to the door and opened it a bit. "Chad what is it?" She scowled at him.  
  
"Darien is here." He replied coldly and walked away. (What's eating him?) She rushed to her room in her towel and searched for her school uniform. She rushed to put it on, combed her hair and ran back to the bathroom. She let the water out as she brushed her teeth.  
  
"Oh no!" She ran back to her room and searched for her shoes. "Chad!" She yelled frantically. He ran over and slipped on the trail of water she had left on the floor. *Crash*  
  
"Ouch, . . yes Rei?"  
  
"Chad! Have you seen my shoes?"  
  
"Yes they are outside, on the entrance mat."  
  
"Ok thanks!" She said as she ran out towards the door. Her hand opened the sliding door and her shoes were on the mat just like he had said. She rushed to put them on and then ran over to the shrine. Her broom lay against the wall, looking almost lonely. Rei picked it off and quickly brushed off the blossom petals off the steps.  
  
"Ok, done." Without taking a second to breathe she ran towards the street were she saw a very suave looking Darien standing in front of his car.  
  
"Hey!"  
  
"Glad you could make it, I was beginning to worry." He joked. She blushed and entered the car. They drove off. Chad looked on from one of the windows and bowed his head. *Sigh* (I'm never going to be good enough am I?)  
  
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The day progressed and everything went as usual. School was a drag and she just sat on her chair and daydreamed all day. After school Darien met her with his car. She was surprised to see him. "Hey, what are you doing here? Don't you have to pick Serena up?"  
  
"She faked sick again. There was an English exam she did not want to fail." They both smiled. Rei entered the car and Darien drove off.  
  
"Hey, I'm hungry, you want to catch something to eat?"  
  
"Sure!" She said as her imagination had its way with her. (Wow, I think he's asking me on a date!) They stopped at the usual restaurant and had a bite to eat. They talked a while, mostly about Serena and then they left.  
  
"Wow, it's getting late." Darien said as he looked up to the sky.  
  
"Yea, I better get home before Ch.Grandpa starts worrying." Darien smiled; he had caught that.  
  
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*Screech* the car had arrived. He turned off the engine. He turned his head towards her and smiled.  
  
"You know, in the moonlight your hair looks like it has a hint of violet in it?" She blushed and looked straight ahead; her eyes could not meet his. "It looks really cool you know, it reminds me of how." (It's now or never!) Without warning she turned her head, leaned over and kissed him. Darien's eyes widened as he pulled away. He finished his sentence. ".Serena's eyes look when the sun is setting." She quickly sat back in her seat and faced forward. (Oh no! What have I done? That was so embarrassing! My life is over, he's going to hate me, and things are going to get weird now!)  
  
"I'm.sorry Darien.I don't know what I was thinking." She said apologetically.  
  
"Listen Rei." He said turning towards her. "You are a beautiful girl and I'm sure you could get any guy you wanted if you set your mind to it."  
  
"I can't have you, can I?"  
  
He sighed. "Look Rei, I'm sorry, but I love Serena. I always have and I always will until the day I die, maybe even after that. I'm sorry if I misled you, but you are only a friend to me. Can you settle with being my friend?"  
  
She tried hard not to cry. "Of course Darien, your friendship means a lot to me." She sniffled a bit. "I'm. I'm sorry. Please don't tell Serena." With that she opened the car door and stepped out. She slammed the door and walked towards her home. She heard Darien calling her name. She closed her eyes and kept walking. The car started and he drove off.  
  
The moon was shining on her and she was in a spotlight. Her hair blew in the breeze and her eyes glistened with tears. (I can't let Grandpa see me like this.) She wiped the tears off her eyes, sniffed, took off her shoes and gently placed them on the entrance mat. The door slid open and she was inside.  
  
"I'm home!" She announced. She walked around her home looking for Chad and Grandpa. They were nowhere to be found. Out of nowhere Grandpa's head popped out of the kitchen.  
  
"Rei! Where have you been?" He asked a bit worried.  
  
"Grandpa I'm ok, Darien just took me out for dinner." She replied as she entered the kitchen. She saw Grandpa sitting on a cushion on the floor, eating. On the other side of the table was Chad. His head was down and he was poking his rice cakes with a chopstick. Next to him was a bowl of cold noodles with a set of chopsticks placed neatly on the surface of the bowl. Chad looked at the noodles and stood up from the floor.  
  
"Well, I guess there is no use for you anymore." He said looking at the noodles. He carried the noodles with him and threw them out the window. Small critters quickly devoured the meal. "I'm sorry if it's a little cold guys, its been sitting there a while." With that he closed the window and put down the bowl. He stood on the entrance of the room right by Rei. He turned to face Grandpa and bowed. "Good night Sensei. I will be up bright and early tomorrow for my training." He stood up straight and looked at Grandpa who greedily stuffed his face.  
  
"Ah yes! Tomorrow's training will be vigorous! So be ready!" He returned to eating. As Chad was exiting the kitchen he passed by Rei. He didn't even look at her as he went by and the cold air that followed him hit Rei's shoulder. "Chad! By the way, great meal! I didn't know you were such a great cook or I would have set you to work earlier eh? Rei you should have tasted those noodles!" Grandpa chuckled completely oblivious of what was happening.  
  
"Yea, I wish I would have." Rei said in a low voice feeling guilty.  
  
"I'm glad you enjoyed the meal Sensei." He kept walking down the long hall, past all the doors until he finally stopped at one, Rei's door. He looked at it and kept walking. He turned left and vanished from Rei's view.  
  
"What's wrong Rei?" Grandpa asked. "You have a stomach ache?"  
  
"Arg! No Grandpa! Everything is fine! Now go back to eating your food!" She snapped back.  
  
(What's bugging her?) Grandpa pondered Rei left the kitchen the same way Chad had. She stormed out and her bare feet echoed footsteps as she walked throughout the dojo. She reached her door and went inside. To her surprise some one had cleaned out her room. The clothes were neatly folded and placed in their proper drawers. The bed had been made, everything was clean, and even Serena's crumbs had been picked off the floor. Serena, the crumbs made her think of Serena, and of Darien, and of the earlier incident. She felt like crying again but she knew Grandpa would walk in and see her. She stepped out of her room quietly and looked towards the kitchen. Grandpa was mumbling and grumbling. Apparently, he got stuck doing the dishes. *Sigh* she continued walking to the end of the hall. She looked to the left, were Chad had turned. She decided to talk to him. As she reached his door she heard some music inside, Chad was playing and she didn't want to disturb him. She raised her hand to knock on the door, but her courage failed her and she turned around and walked back to the hallway. She reached the meditation room and closed the door behind her. The wise fire was burning bright and she felt soothed by its warmth. She bowed to show respect and kneeled in front of the great flames. She began to meditate, looking into the future, wondering what tomorrow had in store for her. Her face grew closer to the fire as she asked it questions. Her hair almost caught fire and she moved back.  
  
(That's enough for tonight) She thought as she headed back towards her room. Again, she looked towards Chad's room and felt she had to apologize for not announcing she would be late and thank him for fixing her room. There was not a doubt in her mind that it had been he who picked up after her. She walked to the door and raised her hand to knock. She stopped when she noticed the lights were off in the room.  
  
"Oh great!" She was ready to walk away when something came over her, an impulse to peek inside. Cautiously, Rei opened the door and found Chad sleeping peacefully in his bed. He looked so innocent, so gentle, and even fragile. A feeling of guilt came over her and she did not why she felt that way. She didn't even know what she was doing in his room. "God this is so stupid." She said as she shut the door to his room and went back to her own.  
  
Once inside her room she began to undress herself. She took off her socks and slowly stepped out of her skirt. *Slide* Her door had been opened. She spun around quickly and saw Chad standing at her door. "Oh Rei, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to . . I didn't know you were . . I'm so sorry." He looked away.  
  
"Chad! Get out now!"  
  
He closed the door. She stood there, growling and hissing. (Wait, what am I doing? Haven't I done enough for one day? Damn you Rei! Why do you have to be so mean?) She yelled at herself. She ran towards the door and opened it. She turned her head left and saw Chad ready to turn down the hall.  
  
"Chad! Wait!" He turned around.  
  
"Shh, you are going to wake Sensei." He whispered  
  
"You mean Grandpa? Please, he sleeps like a log."  
  
"Oh. ."  
  
"Chad I'm so sorry, please come back, I want to talk to you."  
  
He slowly walked back to her room. The whole dojo was dark; he could hardly see where he was going. He felt for the door and went inside. The moon shone in through the window and he could see Rei's figure.  
  
"Ahem" He said looking away.  
  
"What.what is it?" She asked dumbfounded. He pointed to the spot on the floor were her skirt was. "Oh my God!" They both blushed. She quickly picked up the skirt and slid it back on. "I'm so sorry Chad, I didn't know what I . ."  
  
"That's ok, I didn't see anything, promise." He hadn't, all he saw was her outline. She walked over to her bed and turned on the nightlight. It wasn't much, but it gave the room a nice glow and they could actually see each other within the room. She looked towards the door where Chad still stood.  
  
"Well, are you going to stay there all night?"  
  
"No actually I was going back to bed. I'm sorry for walking in on you, I should have knocked." He began to exit the room when she yelled at him.  
  
"What is up with you lately?"  
  
"Huh?" He turned to face her.  
  
"Yea, why are you acting all weird? You avoided me all day, you purposely didn't speak to me, you threw out my food, passed me without saying a single word, and you shut the door to your room. What am I invisible all of a sudden?" She was upset. "I'm just doing what you always wanted me to do, I'm leaving you alone so you can be with Darien. That's what you want isn't it?" He was beginning to raise his voice. He contained himself with the excuse that he did not want to wake Grandpa up. He looked over to Rei who now sat on the edge of her bed with her back to him. Her back was quivering. He walked over to her and sat on the bed next to her.  
  
"Hey, are you cold? Here." He took off his shirt and laid it on her shoulders. She was still quivering. "Rei look at me, what's wrong? I'm sorry if I yelled at you but sometimes my feelings get the best of me." Her head was down and her midnight black hair was covering her face. He took his index finger and lifted her chin. Her eyes were glistening with tears. He wiped her eyes with his thumbs and then moved in to kiss her forehead but she backed away. "I'm sorry."  
  
"Chad, it was so embarrassing." She said through her tears.  
  
"What was Rei?"  
  
"Darien." Chad stiffened his body and a strange look of madness was in his eyes. "He took me to dinner and then I . ."  
  
"What did he do to you?"  
  
"I tried to kiss him!" She busted out crying. Chad did not know how to react. He just listened as the words 'kiss him' rang in his ears and through his mind. His voce began to break.  
  
"Well, that was what you wanted wasn't it?"  
  
"He pulled away and told me how much he loved Serena and then . ."  
  
"Do you love him?" He asked not realizing what had just left his lips. She looked at him confused. "Do you love him?" He repeated.  
  
"I think so."  
  
"In that case, you don't love him." He smiled. He pushed her hair out of her face and tucked it neatly behind her right ear. "If you love some one you are certain of it, you don't have any doubts. If you can't give me a straight answer then it means you don't love him."  
  
He was right. She thought about it and realized she only had a silly infatuation with Darien. She only thought she loved him.  
  
"You're right." She finally admitted. "I don't love him. I guess I just wanted to see if I could have him or not. I never thought Serena could have something that good and me have nothing."  
  
"Rei, don't say that. You have so much. You have your Grandpa, your school, your friends, the shrine, this dojo."  
  
"But. . do I have you?" She looked at him yearning for an answer. (What did I just say? I can't believe I just did that. Why did I just do that?) "I'm sorry."  
  
"Don't be." He smiled. He put her hand on his heart. "Do you feel that?" She nodded.  
  
"As long as that heart is still beating I am at your service." Suddenly she felt like crying again. Did he only think of her as his master? She took her hand off his chest. "What's the matter Rei? I feel like I said something wrong."  
  
"Chad, what do you think of me?"  
  
"What?" He was caught off-guard by the question. "Well I think you are very smart, and talented . . and beautiful."  
  
"But, would you ever want a girl like me?" His heart skipped a beat.  
  
"Rei, I've always wanted a girl like you. No, I always wanted you." She looked at him with surprise although deep down she had always suspected that he liked her. "It is just that, you never wanted me. You never noticed my efforts to win you over because you were so preoccupied with Darien."  
  
Now she felt bad. "You are wrong." She said. "I always noticed you. I noticed the way you always snuck a treat in my lunch bag, making believe Grandpa had done it, the fact that you are always near when the water is cold in the bathroom, the way you pick up my messes so I don't have to deal with it when I get home, the way you always know were all my missing stuff is, the way you iron my uniforms, and even how you always offer to carry my books for me. Trust me Chad, I do notice. It's just that, I'm very proud. I never want help, which is why I'm always scolding you. Not because you have done anything wrong. You do everything for me, and it makes me feel useless and fragile."  
  
"No, I never meant to . ."  
  
"I know; I'm sorry for the way I've behaved towards you. I'll be a little bit nicer from now on ok?" She lifted her head and looked over at Chad. He was just staring at her. She noticed he had no shirt; he had used it to cover her up. His hand wandered over to her and it rested upon her own hand. She felt a strange feeling surge from her chest. Her heart began to beat fast as if she had just jogged a mile. Her breathing became rapid and she felt her knees begin to shake. Chad just looked at her. She was the only thing in the room. She was the only thing in the world, his world. 


	2. Risky Business

Hey guys, how do you like it so far? If you have questions about anything e- mail me: Crazydudette666@cs.com I got some reviews requesting a second chapter. I must comply with the fans lol. Ok, enough talk, on to chapter 2!  
  
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"So beautiful." Chad said as he looked at Rei's eyes; the eyes which first greeted him when he arrived at the dojo, those amethyst orbs that he loved so much. He had always wanted to look at them up close but he never got the chance, until now. Her eyes still twinkled and had a small amount of dew left in them from her crying. Once again, he wiped her eyes clean and tried to lean in for a kiss. He moved his body closer to hers and leaned in. She closed her eyes and leaned towards him. He held her chin and kissed each one of her eyes. (What was that about? Is his aim that bad? Wait a minute. Ew! I don't want Chad to kiss me! He's such a weirdo!)  
  
She opened her eyes and saw him smiling at her. He put his finger on her forehead and traced it down the edges of her face. She closed her eyes and leaned her face towards his finger. Her mouth opened and she gave a small gasp.  
  
(What is happening here? Why is he touching me? Why do I like it?)  
  
His finger had now reached her chin and it had stopped moving. The finger went back up to the face and headed towards her ear. It caressed every groove on her ear, the cartilage, the lobe, nothing was left untouched. Then it moved down further but his eyes never left hers. He traced every spot on her neck with his finger, starting from the right and working its way to the left. He reached the midpoint, her throat. She looked up to the ceiling, almost like giving him approval to keep going. His eyes now wondered down to her neck, it was so beautiful, its marks, its texture; he was fascinated with its beauty, its perfection.  
  
Again, he leaned in to kiss her but this time he went for the throat. As his lips touched her throat she swallowed and her throat moved, causing his lips to slightly shift down. He was now on the remainder of her neck. He was exited, not in the sexual way; he was exited to be this close to her. He was exited to smell the lavender scent that was emerging from her neck. Her perfume was intoxicating; it drew him to her. He wanted to kiss her neck and nothing would stop him. And so he did; he kissed every part of her neck before moving up to her ear. Her eyes left the ceiling and looked straight ahead, his head came up and his eyes were once again fixed on hers. Her gaze pierced through him, she could see every inch of his soul, every inch of his being. He gazed back at her. Her eyes were so clear, so enchanting. The nightlight was reflected in her eyes and so was his face. He stared at his reflection in her eyes; they were mirrors, the mirrors that would not let him in to see her soul. He saw only himself and nothing else. He tried hard to look past his reflection; he did not want to be shut out. Or maybe? Maybe he was part of her soul. Her eyes were reflecting the one she loved and he saw his face, not Darien's. He smiled at her and she smiled back. God she wanted to kiss him, but she did not dare make the first move for fear of being rejected.. .. Again.  
  
The thought of Darien popped in her mind but he did not matter now, she did not care. All she saw was Chad, all she wanted was Chad. She desired him in more ways than one. Man, if he would only kiss her. She was his for the taking but he refused to take her. Why wasn't he like all the other guys in the world? Why didn't he just have his way with her when he had the chance? Thoughts began to pop in her mind.  
  
(What's wrong with me? Why doesn't he just take me? Am I not good enough for him? No, I can't blame him. After the way I treated him he is probably petrified of me!)  
  
Her eyebrows moved in towards each other and she gave a slight frown. Chad caught sight of it and panicked inside. (Aw man! I freaked her out! Great! Way to go Chad you idiot! I have to get out of here before she gets all upset. I can't believe I just did all that! She probably thinks I was trying to take advantage of her. Oh man! I really screwed it up this time.) He began to frown too.  
  
(Oh God, he frowned. What's going on? Is he disgusted with me? Damn, I knew I should have stopped him before he began to kiss me all over. I probably tasted bad. Arg! I knew I should have showered again when I got home! Crap!)  
  
"I think I should go." The silence was broken by his words. They echoed in her head. She looked down at the floor.  
  
"Oh, you have to go . . I understand."  
  
"Understand what?" He asked confused.  
  
"You don't want me, it was stupid of me to think you ever wanted me. God, why am I such a fool?" She wanted to look at him for a reaction but her eyes did not dare leave the sight of the floor. "Wow, my floor is spotless. Thank you for cleaning up my room, and thank you for making me dinner. I'm sorry that I missed it and that it got cold. You cooked it for nothing. Well, the birds and squirrels had a nice meal so I guess it wasn't totally in vain." She was rambling, mumbling. She had no clue what she was saying. (I wish I were in some one else's body right about now!)  
  
"Is that why you went in my room, to thank me for cleaning up after you? Well, I think it is I who has to apologize. I led myself to believe otherwise."  
  
"Wait, I thought you were sleeping when I went in your room."  
  
"I had just finished one of my jam sessions when I heard the door to the meditation room shut. I decided to lie down and fall asleep to the sound of the crackling fire. A while later I realized I could not fall asleep because I couldn't get you off my mind. That was when you came in and I closed my eyes thinking it was Sensei. After a few minutes you closed the door and I saw your shadow moving away from the door so I figured you needed something. I got out of bed and came here to see what you wanted."  
  
"Wait, you think that is all I ever want? To ask you to do things for me?"  
  
"Well yea, but this time you didn't want anything, you just wanted to thank me for doing something for you."  
  
"Chad, why do you think I stood such a long time standing by your door? It wasn't because I wanted something; it was because I enjoyed watching you sleep. You looked so peaceful . . so handsome." She blushed.  
  
"You think I'm handsome?" He put his hand on the back of his head and smiled. *Sweat drop*  
  
"Yea I do, I had a hard time admitting it to myself, that is why I left the room and I slammed the door, not for any other reason you might have thought." Her cheeks felt warm; she had been blushing for quite a while now.  
  
"Can I ask you something?"  
  
"Anything you want Chad" *Smile*  
  
"Why did you frown a couple of minutes ago? Was it because I freaked you out, because I was going too fast for you? If I'm going too fast please stop me, I don't want you to think I'm taking advantage of you."  
  
"Oh . . well . . I frowned because I thought you didn't want me."  
  
"What? Why would you think that? I was kissing you everywhere and trust me, that's a sign of wanting." He laughed a bit trying to break off the tension that had so easily built around them.  
  
(He does want me.) The thought thrilled her. "If you wanted me then why didn't you kiss me?"  
  
"I did"  
  
"No, not a real kiss. You just want my body, is that it Chad? You just want to have your way with me and . . ." Her sentence was cut off by a finger on her lips. Chad smiled at her; he could do nothing else. He looked at her and took his finger away from her lips. He tucked a loose hair behind her ear and moved in. She looked at his lips and he looked at hers. They both thought they were looking at the most perfect set of lips they had ever seen. Chad was moving in slowly but Rei could no longer wait. She surged forward and kissed him. The kiss was brief but powerful. They had both felt a tickling sensation go through their chests. She bit her lower lip, fearing she had screwed it up yet again. Chad smiled at her and moved in for a second kiss. His was much slower and a lot tenderer. He sucked a bit on her lower lip and it drove her mad. She wanted him so badly. She extended her arms back until they touched her pillow. She was slowly laying herself down, hoping that he would follow. Chad caught the hint and decided to help her out. He put his left hand on her right shoulder and with his other hand he gently pushed her chest down. She was now completely lying down and he was still sitting on the side of the bed. He slowly crawled next to her and lay down as well. She turned on her side and faced him. His hand was on her hip and he enjoyed caressing her curves. The hand wandered down her skirt to her thighs. They were so soft, smooth; they were flawless. He was touching her knees now, adoring their silkiness. His hand accidentally found itself at the crack right between her knees. He quickly moved the hand away and put it back up on her hip.  
  
"Don't tell me you're scared." She joked.  
  
"Scared of what? I just don't want to do anything you don't want to do."  
  
"At this point..." She said as she moved her lips close to his ears, "there is very little that I wouldn't want to do." He gulped hard and his hand trembled. She gave him a small kiss on his nose and then stared deep into his eyes. "Chad?"  
  
"Yea?"  
  
"Do you love me?"  
  
"More than anything else in this world. More than rock music and noodles put together!" She laughed. Although rock and noodles didn't mean much to her, she knew that it meant everything to Chad.  
  
"Well in that case, you should move up." He gave her a puzzled look not knowing at all what she meant. She grabbed a hold of his trembling hand and put it back on the crack that separated both her knees. This time, she opened her legs slightly, giving him room to move. "Touch me wherever you want." She whispered in a seducing voice.  
  
"Wait!" He removed his hand from her knees.  
  
"What's wrong? Am I rushing you?"  
  
"Oh, no, not at all." *Nervous smile* "It's just that . . I feel like you are just letting me do this so you can have fun one night and then it'll all be over in the morning. Almost as if you were using me."  
  
"Chad," she said as she cuddled closer to him. "I know that you're afraid of being hurt. I am too. Believe it or not, right now I am petrified more than anything else." He looked down, trying to avoid her looks. He gazed down at her thighs; they were slowly rubbing one another. It was obvious to him; she was aroused.  
  
"Chad? Are you listening to me?" She asked in a low voice.  
  
"Of course I am. Rei, the last thing I would ever want in this world is to hurt you. You mean everything to me and if I hurt you I would be hurting myself as well. Rei, I love you."  
  
"I love you too Chad." That was what he had been waiting for. Now he was sure she wasn't just using him, she had said it, and she loved him. He just wanted to hug her tight and make her a part of him forever.  
  
"Rei, I want us to be one." She smiled at him and nuzzled her nose with his. He gave her a small Eskimo kiss and she giggled. It was adorable the way they acted towards each other now. Rei appreciated everything he was doing, but she meant business. She moved her nose to the side and kissed him. His lips were so soft that they were almost addictive. He moved one of his hands and held her by the back and with the other hand he held her neck. He moved her body closer to him until there was no more room to move. Her mouth opened slightly as she gave another small gasp. He put his tongue in, not knowing if it would be all right or not. He was so scared of doing something wrong. Her tongue met his and they danced with each other. He explored her mouth; the roof, her teeth, her tongue, everything was so delicious to him. His body gave a small quiver; she was turning him on. She broke the kiss and panted for air. He kissed her forehead; she was so beautiful. She wiggled around on the bed uncomfortably. His shirt was under her and the buttons were poking her.  
  
"Chad, can you take the shirt off me?"  
  
"Sure!" He exclaimed overjoyed. (I get to take her shirt off! I get to take her shirt off!) He was singing it all in his mind. His hand slid from her neck to her chest. He looked down at all the buttons. He undid two of them. The third one, the one that would reveal her cleavage, have him trouble. He worked hard trying to undo it. (Damn it! I hate school uniforms. Come on little button, snap! Come on! Please! I love you little button. Come on! Snap for papa!) Nothing happened; the button still didn't budge. He removed his second hand from her back and attempted to open the shirt with both hands. It wasn't very romantic but it was better than struggling. Both hands were at the button and no snapping could be heard. (Come on you stupid piece of shit!) He wanted the button to hear his thoughts.  
  
"Hey, I meant the other shirt." She was nearly laughing at him.  
  
"Oh I'm so sorry, you didn't specify." He laid her down facing the ceiling. He got on top of her and sat on her.  
  
"Am I too heavy for you?"  
  
"Not at all." He slowly lifted her torso so that she was in a sitting position. He had her back held with one hand and with the other hand he removed his annoying shirt. She began to kiss his neck. She went from side to side just as he had done to her. He let go of her back and she slowly fell back on the bed. He followed her and lay right on top of her. His hand caressed her hair. He began at her bangs and followed the strands down to her butt. Her rear was toned and shaped; his hands could not stay away. He began caressing it until his manly impulses got the best of him and he grabbed it. His hand moved down to her thighs and then to the back of her knee. His other hand followed the same trail to the other knee. When his hands were in place he lifted her knees, bringing her legs up. He looked at her for approval. She smiled and spread her legs. He positioned himself between her and let go of her knees. They kissed once again.  
  
"Now you can finish what you started." She said as she put his hands on her breasts. He was so aroused he felt his pants begin to feel tight on him. He tried once again to pop the button open but he received no such luck.  
  
"Rei?"  
  
"Yea?"  
  
"The button is stuck." He blushed with embarrassment. She giggled and helped his hands undo the stubborn button. When the button was undone her cleavage could be seen. Her breasts were round and well shaped. They were the same size and their milky, white color made them look like glazed doughnuts. He continued to unbutton her shirt. His eyes did not leave her chest. She wore a violet bra. He could hardly wait until he got to it. He kept unbuttoning and every time she drew a breath her breasts would move up and down. They were teasing him, toying with his mind! The shirt was now completely open. She lifted her body as he moved the shirt to her back and he kissed her shoulder before completely removing it. They lay back down. One hand slid from her shoulder to her left breast. She arched her back a bit, getting her chest to rise and meet the palm of his hand. He cupped the breast in his hand and squeezed it in a circular motion. They both quivered. Neither of them could take it anymore. She was so turned on that she was about to orgasm without a real sexual experience. She moved his hand from her breast down to her inner thighs. He caressed the skin and moved up a bit. The skin was moist which confirmed her undying arousal. He put his hand on her mound; the underwear was drenched in her juices. He began to remove it. The fabric went down her thighs, past her knees, to her legs, and came off at her feet. He threw it on the floor where the two shirts lay. His hand returned to her thigh. It moved towards the inside and then moved up. The moist area was there again. He kept moving upward and more to the center now. He was almost there.  
  
"Are you sure about this? I don't want you to regret it later." He asked ask he gave her a brief kiss.  
  
"I'm sure." She said as she grabbed his hand, kissed him back, and prepared to move it to its final destination. Rei turned her head to the side, facing her door, so Chad could kiss her neck once again. She loved that feeling. As she turned her head she noticed something. One of the lights in the dojo had been left on. Suddenly, another light turned on.  
  
"Oh no! Grandpa!" she said in a panic.  
  
"Sensei? Gross! No, it's me Chad!"  
  
"No Chad! You don't understand! Grandpa's coming!" She turned his head so that he too faced the door. His eyes widened and he began to panic as well. He quickly took his hand off her thigh and got up from her sweet body. He rushed to find his shirt on the floor and put it on. She was searching frantically for her own shirt and underwear.  
  
"Here!" He tossed her the underwear. He was kind enough to turn around, as she put it on so as not to see her privates. She picked up her shirt and began to button it.  
  
"Oh crap!" She saw a figure coming towards her room. It stopped at the door and then kept on going.  
  
"Oh no!" Chad yelled. "He's headed for my room! I have to get out of here and fast!" He opened the sliding door and ran out. Rei stood by the nightlight with an overwhelming sadness that overcame her. (He just left . . He just walked out.) Moments later a figure emerged back in her room. Chad was back. He ran and jumped over the bed and stood in front of her. He wrapped his hands around her waist and pushed her closer to him and he gave her a brief kiss. "I didn't want to leave without saying good-bye first." He smiled at her and she smiled back. He let her go and jumped over the bed once again. As he headed out the door he bumped full speed into Grandpa. *Crash*  
  
"S.S.Sensei?" He asked looking up at Grandpa from the floor.  
  
"Chad? What in the world are you doing in Rei's room at this time of night?" He questioned suspiciously.  
  
"W.W.Well. . I was. . um I was just ." He replied extremely nervous.  
  
"You weren't spooning with my granddaughter now where you?" Both Rei and Chad had a look of fear and agony across their faces. Were they caught? Had Grandpa heard them talking? Had he heard the noise? 


	3. Smooth Save

The tension was at an all-time high between the three. Grandpa, for once in his life, had caught on to the situation at hand and was asking for an explanation. Rei and Chad were just speechless with fear.  
  
"Did you hear me?" Grandpa said in a loud, deafening voice. "I asked what you were doing with my granddaughter so late at night in her room."  
  
"Well Sensei," Chad replied in a shaky and unsure voice. "I was just here to check up on her."  
  
"Explain yourself." Grandpa asked, not buying into the story. Rei walked over to the door were the men stood. She saw the panicked look that was across Chad's face and instantly knew it was up to her to save both their butts.  
  
"Grandpa, it's very simple." Rei put on her sweetest and most adorable face. "Chad just heard a noise in the meditation room. All the lights in the dojo were shut off so he figured it was an intruder. He went to wake you up but you were sound asleep. He entered the meditation room only to find it empty. Fearing that the intruder would harm me at my most vulnerably time, in my slumber, he crept into my room to try and fight him off. It was quite brave of him."  
  
"Ah! I see! Well done Chad!" Chad and Rei looked at each other. They were off the hook. "Say, were did the intruder go?" Grandpa asked, fearing that his dojo was in danger. He looked at them for an explanation. Their eyes widened and Rei's eyebrow began to twitch. She was out of ideas. It was up to Chad to save them and let's face it; they were doomed. Just as Grandpa was beginning to get suspicious Chad stepped forth.  
  
"Sensei," He said as he bowed, "there was no intruder."  
  
"What do you mean? Rei just said . ."  
  
"I thought some one might be invading the dojo but I was mistaken." He cut Grandpa off; something he had never dared to do for it was a sign of great disrespect. "I heard a noise so I got up and went in search of your assistance. When I could not awaken you I heard the noise moving towards Rei's bedroom. I feared for her safety and headed to her rescue. When I got here, she told me that it was only she in the meditation room, consulting the Great Fire. You see there was no intruder. There was only Rei consulting the Great Fire in a bit of a late night meditation session." He finished it off and sighed. He had spoken coolly and slowly; there was no reason for Grandpa to be suspicious now.  
  
"I see." He took his eyes off Chad and looked at Rei. "Rei, I'm going to ask you something and I expect to hear the truth."  
  
(That's it; we are doomed! I can't lie to Grandpa when he asks me to speak the truth. Oh, I'm sorry Chad! When Grandpa finds out about this he is going to expulse you from the dojo. Oh please, great spirits surrounding me. Do not let Grandpa throw Chad out of the dojo. Do not let Grandpa find out about this. I promise I won't pull anything like this ever again.)  
  
"Rei?" Grandpa asked as he flashed his hand in front of Rei's frozen face. "Are you listening to me Rei?"  
  
"Of course Grandpa." She replied as she bowed her head. She did not want to look him in the eyes, she was ashamed of what she had done, but she was not sorry. "What did you want to ask me?"  
  
"Rei, what's bothering you?"  
  
"Huh?" She tried as best as she could to extend the truth, to avoid the lie, so she did the only thing she could think of, stalling and playing dumb.  
  
"Rei, you are my granddaughter and I know you better than I know myself sometimes. I can feel you hiding something from me. Now what is it?" He picked up her head and forced her to stare in his eyes.  
  
(That's it. I'm doomed. Rei is going to spill her guts and I am going to be exiled from the dojo. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that I won't be able to see her again. No! This can't happen! I can't live like that.)  
  
"Well Grandpa, I have no choice but to tell you the truth." Chad held her hand as she drew in a deep breath and let it out. He also took in a breath but he held his, afraid of what was going to come out of her lips. "Grandpa, the reason I was in the meditation room was because I did not want you to see me cry."  
  
"What?" Chad said as he exhaled, looking at Rei. (What is she doing? Can it be? Is Rei lying to Sensei?)  
  
"You were in the kitchen and Chad was in his room." She continued. "Something happened earlier." Chad let go of her hand and lowered his face, letting his bangs cover his eyes.  
  
(She is talking about Darien. She must have been thinking of him all this time.) Rei sneakily slid her hand back with Chad's.  
  
"Something that no longer matters to me. I was upset over what had happened and I wanted to cry. I didn't want you to walk in my room and see me. That is why I went into the meditation room. It was the only room that I knew were to hide. You wouldn't go in there if the door was shut for fear of interrupting me while I meditated." A load had been taken off Chad's mind.  
  
"Are you all right now?" Grandpa asked worried about his granddaughter.  
  
"Yes Grandpa I'm fine. If I need anything I'll come to you next time." *Smile*  
  
"That's what I like to hear! I'm here for you if you need anything. Well." He said as he gave out a loud yawn. "If there is nothing else wrong here then let's all go back to sleep. Especially you Chad, you need to be up bright and early tomorrow." Chad nodded and bowed as Grandpa smiled, put his arms behind his back, bowed his head, and began to walk. He suddenly stopped and turned around. His eyes were a slit and then he opened them. He looked down a bit focusing on something. Rei and Chad looked around trying to find what he was looking at. They looked at the floor and at the walls. They had no idea what Grandpa was looking for.  
  
(Man, Sensei is getting old. He is growing Senile or getting Alzheimer's) Chad was searching all around him like a maniac. Rei just stood still and examined Grandpa's face. Suddenly, it hit her.  
  
(THE HANDS!) She quickly let go of Chad's hand. Chad didn't know what hit him. The poor fool still looked around trying to find what Grandpa was staring at. Grandpa smiled, turned around, and walked away. Rei stood there, frozen, waiting until Grandpa took a left hand turn and disappeared into the next hallway. She let out a long breath and looked at Chad. Grandpa was gone and Chad was still in search of the object, which had caught Sensei's attention.  
  
"Chad!" She was loosing her patience with his stupidity. "He's been gone for almost a minute now!"  
  
"Oh," Chad said looking around, this time for Sensei. "Where did he go?"  
  
"To bed. Weren't you listening?" He smiled at her and scratched the back of his head.  
  
"Yea I heard him say something about me getting up early." He now said in his normal, non-goofy voice. "I think I should go to bed before he starts suspecting something." He looked down the hallway, making sure no one was there. He gave her a kiss on the cheek and began to walk away. "Sweet dreams my love." He blew her another kiss and she caught it with her hand and put it on her chest as if it had entered her heart. He walked backwards not wanting to lose sight of her. Eventually, he reached the end of the hallway and he was forced to turn left just as Grandpa had done a few minutes ago. When he was out of sight she stepped into her bedroom and closed the door.  
  
(The lights!) She stepped out of the room again and headed towards the lights that Grandpa had so clumsily left lit. She turned off the light in the kitchen and the long set of lights that lit the hallway. She was now in complete darkness. She walked with her left hand extended to touch the wall. Rei walked in her socks down the long hallway, which to her now seemed like the Green Mile. Just as she had reached the entrance to her room she slipped on the freshly polished wooden floor. Her body hit the floor and she looked down the hall for help. She only saw darkness, Chad was nowhere in sight. Her long, black hair was scattered all over the floor. She lifted her torso from the floor. She ran her left hand all around her face, making sure she had not cut herself anywhere. Her face was fine. She gripped onto the wall and tried to stand up. Her legs were tangled and she had to straighten them out and try again. She looked like a newborn deer attempting to take its first steps after being delivered. With much trouble she finally stood up. She shook herself off, entered her room and closed the door. (Alone at last) She began to undress herself once again. She undid the knot and took off the reddish cloth that hung around her neck. She folded it neatly and placed it on the bed. Slowly, she unbuttoned her shirt, slipped it off, folded it and placed it on the bed along with the red cloth. Her arms felt around the back of her waist searching for the skirt's zipper. She pulled it down and put her hands at the end of the skirt. She tugged it a little and jiggled her hips until the skirt came off. She bent her body forwards to pick up the skirt. She folded it and laid it with the rest of the clothing items. (Aw man! I forgot to brush my teeth!) *Growl* She opened her door and welcomed the darkness that lay ahead. She carefully removed her socks so she would not fall again. Her feet were slightly clammy with sweat because of the socks and when she walked around her feet stuck to the floor. She entered the bathroom and faced the sink. She picked up her toothbrush and lined it with a minty strip of toothpaste. The brushing began and the rich lather began to form in her mouth as she moved the smooth shaft in and out of her warm mouth. She rinsed her mouth with cold water and smiled at the mirror. Her white nightshirt was lying on the towel rack. Surely, Chad had put it there for her. She picked up the shirt and brushed it against her cheek. She smelled the sleeves were Chad had folded the shirt and she could detect a hint of his smell. *Smile* She put her shirt on and buttoned it. She felt too lazy to even take off her bra. Her hands wondered down to her thigh. A little wood chip lay there from her previous fall. She picked it off, looked at it, and flung it with her nail. Her finger had something on it, something sticky. She ran her hand up her thigh once again. Her thigh was now dry but the stickiness was still there. She lowered the toilet lid and sat on it. She spread her legs and lifted her shirt to be able to get a good look. Her underwear was drenched! (Oh my God! Look at all of this! I'm gonna have to change and fast!) She took off her underwear, wiped herself with some toilet paper and put on a fresh pair. She felt nervous for some reason. (What if Grandpa finds this?) She was too afraid to put it in the laundry chute so she hand-washed it herself and hung it to dry. Confident that everything was over, she headed back to her room and plopped on her bed. Her uniform bounced off the bed and hit the floor. She looked over to it and paid no attention to it whatsoever. She folded her arms behind her head and looked at the ceiling. The whole house was dark except for her nightlight. (Grandpa knows. I saw the expression on his face. He saw our hands. He knows something is up. Great! Now he's going to think I lied to him. Well . . I prefer to call it saying the incomplete truth.) She tried to make herself feel better. (It's no use now. Whatever happens happens.) She lay on her side and drifted off to sleep.  
  
`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~`~`  
  
Chad lay on his bed thinking about recent events. He had never felt better in his life, except for the whole scene with Sensei. He wasn't sure if Rei was all right or not. All that stress could mess any one up, especially Rei. Although she hid it well, she was very fragile and cried easily. He made up his mind and got off his bed. He sneaked around the dark hallway until he reached her room. He quietly went inside and found her fast asleep. Slowly and silently, he tip toed next to her and shut off the nightlight. He removed a strand of hair from her face and gave her a kiss on her cheek. She smiled.  
  
"Mmm . . Chad." She mumbled in her sleep. Nothing could have made him happier. He crept out of her room and slid her door shut. He walked normally back to his own room, not caring who heard him as he passed by. A big grin was on his face and his eyes were overjoyed. He went inside his room and closed the door. He jumped on his bed and gave out a long sigh. Life was great! He rolled over on his stomach.  
  
"Ouch!" Something pierced his stomach. He lifted his stomach up only to find his shirt under him. *Smirk* "Well, will you look at that? Those buttons really do hurt." He picked up the shirt and put it on. He once again lay down. His collar smelled funny. He lifted it up and brought it closer to his nose. He took in a big whiff of the scent. It was Rei's lavender perfume. He closed his eyes and let the smell sit in his lungs before he exhaled. He fixed his collar and rolled on his stomach again. He fell asleep within a few seconds. A big smile was across his face. He had fallen asleep to the scent of the one he loved. He had fallen asleep thinking of her. 


	4. Grandpa's Lesson

A new day began at the Hino shrine. The week had flown by and the weekend lay ahead.  
  
Chad had awakened early in the morning, remembering he had to train with Grandpa. At the time he had awakened it was still dark outside. He groaned with annoyance when his alarm clock rang. Due to the whole ordeal the night before, he had only gotten a few hours of sleep .. but he did not regret a single minute of it. He stared at the alarm clock through squinted eyelids and let out another groan when he saw the time.  
  
"Four twenty only? Why can't I just go back to sleep?" *groan* He lay down on his stomach and put a nearby pillow over his head hoping to ignore the clock. Suddenly the alarm clock began to ring again, almost as if it were rebelling against Chad's laziness and ignorance. The sounds from the clock seemed only to get louder and louder. Eventually Chad gave into the power of the clock and rose from his bed. "Why me?" He protested as he sat on the edge of his bed and gave the "OFF" button a good smack. He placed his hand on his head and began to rub his scalp. "What the hell?" He exclaimed as his fingers became tangled in his hair. "Oh great! This is going to be a bad day, preceded by a bad lifetime!" He walked around the dojo with his hand still caught in his hair. He entered the bathroom and lifted his towel from the holding rack. The towel was dropped on the toilet lid as he exited the bathroom and went outside in search of firewood. He tossed some pieces of wood into the bath fire and quickly ran back inside the dojo and the bathroom, trying to catch the water while it was still hot. He jumped in the bathtub and just submerged himself completely. As soon as his hair touched the water his hand was freed from its tangled grasp. He began taking a bath and washing his hair.  
  
`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~`~`  
  
Rei's eyes fluttered slightly as the first ray of sunshine slipped in through her window and projected its warmth on her eyelids. She rose slightly out of bed and did her usual stretch routine. Her clock read six thirty. "Oh no! I overslept! Now I'm going to be late for my chores!" She dashed around the room trying to get to her dresser. She frantically opened her drawers and tossed clothes all around the room. "Where is that outfit?" She was completely frustrated and she once again dashed across the room and opened her closet in search of her priestess outfit. She found it neatly pressed and hung in her closet. "Perfect!" She commented in delight as she picked up the clothes on the floor and neatly placed them in their proper drawer. She ran out of her room and walked into the bathroom. There was no time for a shower so she had to settle for a quick hygiene routine. As she raced the comb through her silky, black hair she looked over her shoulder to the clothes hanger that still held her underwear from the previous night. She touched it and it was still damp so she left it there and continued her speedy routine. A few minutes later she was in her priestess outfit and calmly walking towards the kitchen. When she got there she found Chad and Grandpa already kneeling at the table and sipping their morning tea. She took a quick peek at Chad and then quickly looked at the huge buffet of food placed on the table. "Wow!" She exclaimed. Her eyes were overwhelmed with all the different kinds of breakfast foods. "Who ordered the takeout?"  
  
"No one" Replied Grandpa between gulps of tea. "Chad woke up today in a domestic mood!" He chuckled loudly as he elbowed Chad in the arm. Chad just smiled and looked down at his plate of food. Next to him sat a plate of food that had yet to be touched and Rei assumed that was her place. As she kneeled next to him Chad blushed and cleared his throat before speaking.  
  
"I put a few dumplings on your plate along with some chocolate doughnuts since I know you like them so much. Pardon the small amount but that was all I could salvage from the grasp of Sensei's chopsticks." He didn't even raise his head when he spoke to her; he just stared at his plate.  
  
"Oh that's fine thank you." She replied a little rosy on the cheeks herself. Grandpa looked up from his plate and smiled at Rei. She smiled right back at him and took a small bite of one of her chocolate doughnuts. The chocolate filling oozed out of the doughnut and into her mouth. She moaned with delight at the chocolaty goodness and giggled a bit at her own silliness. She went to take a sip of her tea but Chad stopped her.  
  
"Please let me warm it for you." He gently took the cup out of her hands and walked towards the teakettle. He poured the contents of her cup into the kettle and turned on the stove and let it heat up. Grandpa looked up from his plate once again and looked out the kitchen window.  
  
"It's a shame.." He said in a curious voice.  
  
"What's a shame Grandpa?" Rei replied confused.  
  
"It's a shame that the birds and squirrels are not getting a drink today."  
  
"Why do you say that?" She asked confused once again.  
  
"Because Chad did not throw out your tea out the window because you were late for breakfast like he did last night with your noodles." A grim look crossed both Chad and Rei's faces as they kept about their business. There was an awkward silence in the kitchen but it was soon broken by the whistling sounds of the teakettle.  
  
"Ah the tea is ready." Chad poured the hot tea back into the cup and handed it back to Rei. "Be careful, it's very hot."  
  
"Oh it's alright I got it." She held out her hands to receive the tea. Their hands touched for a split second before the tea had been safely handed over to her. She held the cup with both hands and gently blew at the emerging steam of the liquid. Courageous as she was, she dared to take a small sip from the tea and nearly burned her tongue in the process. The tea was a little bit hot but it soothed her throat and she soon felt entirely relaxed. The rest of breakfast was spent in silence. Everyone ate out of his or her own plate and no one said a word to any one else. It was a bit awkward for them all but each member did their best to ignore the situation. After breakfast was done Chad picked up the plates and cups and took them over to the sink to be washed. Rei offered to help him since on a day like today there were more plates than usual but he kindly refused her help and continued cleaning up. Rei began to exit the kitchen, giving him a quick glance before fully exiting. His back was turned to her and he missed her looking at him.  
  
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Chad finished drying and putting away the last dish of that morning's meal. He wiped the table clean and headed outside where Grandpa was waiting for him to begin his training. Grandpa handed him a light blue sash, which he placed around his waist. He was ready to begin training. They both sat down on the cool grass and meditated for a small amount of time. A few yards away stood Rei by the shrine sweeping up the cherry blossom petals, which had once again fallen from the trees. Once in a while she looked over at Chad meditating on the grass and she would smile. He in turn opened one eye, looked at her, smiled back at her, and closed it again before Grandpa scolded him.  
  
"You're not concentrating Chad!" Grandpa yelled.  
  
"Huh? I'm sorry Sensei. I was a little bit distracted." He looked down and began meditating again.  
  
"Yes I can see that." He looked over to where Chad had been staring and found a lonely broom leaning on the shrine. Rei was nowhere to be seen. "Just what were you staring at?"  
  
"Oh, it was just the beauty of this year's blossoms that's all."  
  
"Now are you sure?" He looked at Chad with disbelief.  
  
"Positive Sensei. Now, may we return to our meditation?" They closed their eyes and returned to their previous, disconnected selves. Rei came out from behind the shrine, picked up the broom and started brushing the cherry blossoms away from the shrine steps. She looked over at Chad, hoping to continue their little staring game but this time he was fully concentrated and would not open his eyes. She accepted the situation and continued to peacefully clean the shrine's steps. The wind gave a small but strong gust that shook the cherry trees and caused petals to fall on her and the already swept petals to fall back on the steps. The gust had interrupted Chad's meditating. He wasn't exactly the most focused person in the world. He looked over at Rei who was angrily brushing the petals off the steps. After many futile attempts she just gave up. He stared at her until his vision blurred and he had to blink to get back on track. But he did not want to blink because it meant he had to miss looking at her for a fraction of a second and he could not have that. The scene he saw was beautiful. It almost looked like a painting he had seen in a museum. She was standing still with the broom held tightly in her hands, waiting for the gust to end. The morning sun was shining directly on her hair and every strand of it looked like a strand of velvet, changing colors in the sun. Petals were being carried by the wind in what seemed to be a miniature tornado forming around her. She just held her broom, closed her eyes, and tilted her head towards the sky waiting for the gust to end but also feeling its tranquil coolness. Chad was bedazzled and stared until Sensei yelled at him again and told him that the key to meditating was to imagine something and to keep the mind fixed on that one image. Chad asked if it could be anything at all and Grandpa replied with a positive approval. That was all it took to convince him to meditate. He closed his eyes and as soon as darkness overtook his sight he imagined that beautiful picture of Rei in the wind. He was instantly soothed and able to focus.  
  
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After much meditating Sensei opened his eyes and gently stood up from the ground, Chad followed.  
  
"Now that you possess a trained mind we will begin training your body." Sensei and Chad faced each other and bowed respectfully. Chad got himself in a defense position. His knees were slightly bent, his left foot pointed ahead of him while his right foot slightly pointed to the right. This way he had balance and was not easily knocked off his feet. His hands were in front of him, covering his face; one hand was a fist while the other was an open palm. Sensei slowly walked towards him and stopped when he was about four feet away from him. Chad maintained his position and stared straight into Sensei's eyes. Sensei suddenly struck a blow aimed straight at Chad's face. With the open palm hand Chad blocked it and counterpunched with his fisted hand. Sensei was struck in the gut and tumbled onto the floor.  
  
"Ahh! Sensei!" Chad screamed as he ran over to the spot on the grass in which Sensei was lying motionless. A look of morbid fear was written across Chad's face and he began to panic. Rei was putting away her wooden broom when she heard Chad's screams. She turned around and saw Grandpa on the floor and Chad standing over his body. The corners of her lips turned upward as she gave a small smile. She then walked up the shrine steps, rang the large bell, which hung over her head, knelt in front of the shrine and bowed her head.  
  
"Oh great spirits of the Hino shrine." She began to pray. "Don't let him die of fright." As she finished her sentence she looked at Chad who was now in a full panic attack over the paralyzed old man. She stood up from the floor, bowed her head again, rang the bell, and walked down the shrine steps. She headed towards the spot were Chad stood nearly crying. She cleared her throat and spoke in a confused voice. "Chad? What's the matter?"  
  
"Rei! Rei I think I killed Sensei!" He looked down at the old man and tried to listen to his heartbeat but as he lifted his head from Grandpa's chest he seemed only more upset. "Oh god! I did kill him! What am I going to do? Bad luck will follow me for the rest of my life! Not to mention the sleepless nights I will suffer due to the visits from Sensei's ghost!" Suddenly and inadvertently Sensei rose from the ground, stood in back of Chad, and delivered a quick kick aimed at his back. Droplets of spit flew past Rei's face as Chad's body hit the floor.  
  
"Grandpa! Did you have to hit him so hard?" She growled at Grandpa as she stooped over to check Chad's overall condition.  
  
"Sensei! You are alive .. I didn't kill you .. your ghost won't .." That was all he managed to say before his body began to quiver and he lost all touch with consciousness.  
  
"Now you see what you did!" Rei looked up at Grandpa who had a smile of satisfaction upon his face.  
  
"Well I believe this lesson is over. Tomorrow when he is feeling better I will teach him how to play dead." *Chuckle* "At least he can hit. That punch gave me a stomach cramp. I might have to miss lunch today." He looked at Rei who by now had stood up and was looking down at him with angry eyes. "Rei? What's wrong?"  
  
Her left eyebrow twitched as a look of sheer madness crossed her face. Her hair began to frizz slightly and she took on the appearance of an angry tigress. Before Grandpa could react she punched him full strength in the gut and watched as his frail body slowly keeled to the ground and his face hit the dirt.  
  
"Let's see you play dead now!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. The birds on the trees flew away and there was silence. Rei, Chad, and Grandpa were the only people in the world. Rei clasped her hands and let her arms hang down as she closed her eyes and mumbled something under her breath. When she opened her eyes she looked like her peaceful self again .. well, as far as peaceful goes for Rei. She knelt on Chad's side and moved his bangs away from his face. His hair was wet from the shower but oh so soft. For a few moments she stood there watching him in his state of unconsciousness until finally she grabbed one of his arms and stood up. She began to drag his body by his one arm. *Grunt* She passed right by Grandpa who was still face down on the ground.  
  
"Maybe next time you won't be so rough with your apprentice. I can't believe you would hit him that hard, especially in his spine!"  
  
Grandpa groaned slightly as he tried to move his head but soon realized he was unable to do so. His head went right back to the soil.  
  
"That's right! Maybe that will teach you a lesson! And you know what? Now you're screwed because our cook is unconscious which means you won't be getting fed today."  
  
A loud groan was heard from the ground followed by a series of whimpers until finally Rei concluded that Grandpa had had enough. He knew he would have to eat cold leftovers and that she would not even heat them up for him. Today he was on his own. She continued to drag Chad's body to the dojo until she reached the door. Beads of sweat collected on her forehead and slid down her face. She lifted his body up to and erect position and put one of his arms over her shoulders. The door to the dojo had been left open and she soon found herself inside the dojo carrying the limp body with her. She walked down the long hall which usually seemed pretty short but on this occasion felt like a mile. She turned left and walked on until she reached Chad's door. With much effort she slid the door open with one hand and squeezed Chad and herself through the narrow opening. Once inside she dumped Chad on his bed and collapsed next to him. She panted through her mouth and with her right arm cleared the sweat on her face. She ran out the door and out the dojo to find Grandpa who was now slowly standing up from the ground. He held his stomach with one hand and his back with the other. He glanced over at Rei who was marching towards him. His eyes widened and he looked left and right for a place to hide. Without thinking it twice he ran down the steps of the dojo, crossed the street and disappeared in the far distance.  
  
"Hmm. . where could he have gone?" Rei thought aloud as she looked at the imprint Grandpa's body had left on the ground. "Oh well!" She said at last. "He'll be back in a few hours as soon as his stomach begins to growl! At times I wonder if he's Serena's grandfather instead of mine." She walked with her hands behind her through the grass and back inside the dojo. She walked back into Chad's room to find him in the same state as when she had left him. His left leg was hanging out of the bed and she gently lifted it to its rightful place. She sat next to him and stared at him from his feet to his head. She observed every detail in his body and suddenly it hit her. She had Chad all to herself for a few hours until Grandpa returned. A sly smirk crossed her face as she began to think of creative ways to nurse him back to health. 


	5. Nurse Rei

Hey guys! How's the story coming out so far? Hope you like it! I'm sorry that chapter 4 took me such a long time to post but as many of you know, school started, and for me it is extremely hard to keep up with school and the fic because I'm now a senior and I'm applying to college and yada yada yada. Anyways, I just wanted to apologize to you guys for the delays that the story is and will be experiencing.  
  
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*Groan* Chad was slowly awakening from his previous state of unconsciousness. As he opened his eyes he saw a vague figure standing over him. It was a woman who he could not recognize. There was a halo of light around her head and she was dressed in white.  
  
"Who are you?" He asked groggily.  
  
The figure began to get clearer. The room began to take shape. The colors returned to their normal hues and attached themselves to random objects in the room.  
  
"Whoa! What the heck am I tripping on?"  
  
He looked around, opening his eyes to their maximum capacity. Spots of colors floated around him and without warning suddenly attached themselves to parts of the room until finally the room was fully colored and everything was clear. His mind snapped back to its original self and his head jerked quickly in search of the woman who he had vaguely seen a few moments ago. As he turned his head to the left he saw Rei. She sat on the edge of his bed dunking a white cloth in a bowl of cold water. She lifted the cloth up, wrung it, and brought it close to Chad.  
  
"Welcome back." She said as she placed the cold cloth on Chad's sweaty forehead.  
  
"You've been out for quite a while." She said as she gave him a gentle smile. Chad just looked at her as the coldness from the cloth seeped in through his pores. The window in his room was open and a gentle breeze snuck inside. It blew her hair slightly to the right and then ceased to move it again. She turned her head towards the window and then her eyes went back to Chad's forehead where the cloth lay. She touched it with one hand and with the other she reached for the bowl of cold water. She brought it closer to the bed and laid it on her lap. She removed the cloth from his head and once again dunked it in the cold water. There were a few small rays of light entering from the window. They were hitting Chad straight in the eyes which caused them to reflect off his eyes and form a small halo around Rei's head. Chad smiled at her and then squinted his eyes away from the light.  
  
"Is the light bothering you?" She asked. He nodded slightly as she stood up and closed the curtains on the window. Some light still got in but at least it was not aimed at his eyes.  
  
"Better?"  
  
"Yes, thank you." He tried to sit up but found it quite painful and restricting so he just lay back down.  
  
"Grandpa hit you a bit harder than he meant to."  
  
"Sensei is quite strong for his age. Plus, I deserved the hit; I shouldn't have hit him so hard. For a moment I thought he was dead." He smiled a bit thinking of how panicked he got when he saw Sensei on the floor motionless. "What kid of lesson was that though?" He suddenly got upset.  
  
"Oh he does that sooner or later to all his new apprentices. It is a very valuable lesson although it may seem silly. See what happens is . . ." She explained to him how important it was to 'play dead' whenever your enemy had knocked you down and you were too weak to get back up.  
  
"So basically I just lay there?"  
  
"Somewhat, you have to control your breathing and your heart rate so it seems like you're dead. Remember when you bent over to feel Grandpa's heart?" He nodded. "It didn't seem like it was beating did it?" He shook his head.  
  
"How did he do that?"  
  
"Ah, that is the tricky part. But I can't tell you the secret of it all because then tomorrow your lesson will be ruined."  
  
"Don't worry. In the condition I'm in I doubt I'll be doing any training tomorrow." They both laughed a bit.  
  
"Don't be such a baby. You only got hit once."  
  
"Well then maybe you'd care to explain to me why I can't seem to get back up."  
  
"Because I tied you to the bed."  
  
"Wh. . .What?!" He looked to the sides and his hands were along his body and a long strand of rope bound him to the bed.  
  
"Calm down." She undid the rope and he was free from its restrictions. "I only tied you down because you were moving a lot when you were passed out. You must have been having a dream or something because your arms began to fling around and you nearly hit me in the face."  
  
"Oh wow I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."  
  
"That's ok. I know"  
  
He sat up with quite a lot of pain on his back. The cloth on his head fell on his lap. He touched the spot on his back were Sensei had hit him and he squinted with pain.  
  
"Why does it hurt so much?"  
  
"Oh that's partially my fault."  
  
"Huh? What did you do to me while I was asleep?"  
  
"Nothing silly." She laughed briefly. "I had to drag you inside. How did you think you got here?"  
  
"You dragged me?" He examined himself closely and found multiple grass and dirt stains on his clothes.  
  
"Yes." She also began to look at his clothes and found them quite dirty. "I'm sorry. It seems I have ruined your training outfit."  
  
"Nah, don't worry about it. It's nothing a good cycle in the washing machine won't fix." He looked at her, closed his eyes and smiled.  
  
"You're right. I'll get right on it. Give me your shirt." This was not something he was expecting.  
  
"My . . . my shirt?"  
  
"Yes your shirt." She looked at him and noticed that he was blushing. "If you're shy I'll turn around so you can take it off. It's nothing I haven't seen before you know?"  
  
"Oh, so you've seen other guys huh?" He began to slowly take off his shirt.  
  
"No . . . Yes . . . Well that's not what I meant. What I meant to say was that I had already seen you without your shirt."  
  
"When?" He muffled a bit as he tried to get his shirt over his head.  
  
"Last night when we . . . I mean when you put it over me because I was a bit chilly." She blushed.  
  
"Oh yea now I remember." He blushed while still trying to get his shirt over his head. There was a brief silence which Rei could not bear.  
  
"Are you all right back there?" She said impatiently as she crossed her arms and stomped her right foot.  
  
"I'm fine." Chad said as he struggled with the shirt.  
  
"You don't sound fine to me!" She turned around and saw Chad completely tangled in his shirt. The sleeves had wrapped themselves around him and made the shirt look like a straightjacket. His hair was all messed up from the ordeal and he looked like a complete lunatic.  
  
"You know . . ." She began. "A good man knows when to ask for help."  
  
"Well in that case . . ." He spoke calmly. "Get this crazy thing off me please!" He yelled. She walked over to him laughing and kneeled on his bed.  
  
"All right now stay still." She put the shirt back over his head and examined it hoping to find the problem. "Ah!" She said at last. "It seems you forgot to undo the button on the neck and the ones on the cuffs."  
  
"I knew that." He said smiling.  
  
"I'm sure you did Chad." She assisted in undoing the neck and cuff buttons. "There you go." She said satisfied with her actions. Before she got a chance to get up and turn around again Chad lifted the shirt over his head and jerked his head back so his hair would get away from his face.  
  
"Here you go." He said as he handed her the shirt. "Don't wash it. Just leave it in the laundry chute and I'll wash it tomorrow."  
  
"Oh . . . no that's all right." She said looking at the floor, trying to avoid the sight of his bare chest.  
  
"No, I insist."  
  
"Chad, remember what we talked about last night? About making me feel fragile and incapable of doing certain tasks?"  
  
"I'm sorry but that was not what I meant at all. I just didn't want to miss you while you were gone washing the shirt that's all." He gave her a small smile.  
  
"You have a way with words do you know that?"  
  
"That's what the ladies tell me!" He laughed loudly.  
  
"Oh . . ." She said as she took the shirt and left the room.  
  
"Huh?" He looked at the door. "What did I say?" He got up from the bed and felt his aching back. "Well, whatever I did I better go fix it and fast!" He walked out of his room and followed Rei through the long, narrow hallway. "Rei!" He called out to her. She pretended not to hear. "Rei!" He called again. "Rei please!" He pleaded a third time until she finally turned around.  
  
"What is it Chad?"  
  
"What's wrong? What did I say?"  
  
"Nothing Chad! Nothing at all!" She yelled in her old cranky voice.  
  
"Please tell me what I did!"  
  
"That's what the ladies tell you huh Chad?" Her eyes began to water. "How many girls have you screwed with lately? Five? Six maybe? More?"  
  
"Rei what in the world are you talking about? You know I haven't scored with any chicks since I came to the dojo." She just kept on walking until she reached her room. She went inside, threw his shirt on the floor, shut the door, and sat on the edge of her bed. He followed her, opened the door, stepped inside and stood in front of her. She stared straight at the ground. "Look at me." He said in a soft but yet demanding voice. "Look at me Rei." Her eyes slowly lifted from the floor and worked their way up his body. He squatted on his hamstrings to be at eye level with her.  
  
"I'm sorry Chad. I don't know what came over me. I just got so jealous all of a sudden. I can't explain it."  
  
"Then don't." He smiled as he leaned in and kissed her forehead. She smiled in return and stood up from the bed helping him stand up as well. She picked up his shirt from the floor and brought it over to the bathroom. There she flooded the sink with water and dunked the shirt and left it there. She returned to the hallway to find Chad holding on to the wall, walking back to his room. She followed him and met him inside. "Where's Sensei?" He asked as he lay down on his bed.  
  
"He . . . uh . . . He left a little after he hit you. I don't know were he went but it must be a place with food because he hasn't returned." They both laughed.  
  
"So, you mean we are all alone in the dojo?"  
  
"Yes, we have it all to ourselves." She smiled at him and gave him a kiss on the forehead, almost inviting him to start something.  
  
"I see." He said a little rosy around the cheeks. As she was pulling away from his forehead he sat up on the bed, grabbed her by the back of the neck and brought her close for a tender kiss on the lips. "Well then?" He asked. She smiled at him and got herself closer for a more probing kiss. His arms wrapped themselves around her and it seemed as if they had engulfed her. She let out a soft, almost inaudible moan as she felt his bare chest press up against her. She lay down on the bed next to him and waited for him to come to her. He shifted himself to the right and slowly lay down and rolled himself on top of her. *Groan*  
  
"Are you all right?" She asked concerned.  
  
"Yea I'm fine." He replied as he ran the palm of his hand through the side of her face. He kissed her on the forehead and awaited his next instructions.  
  
"Are you sure you're all right?"  
  
"Yea, Sensei only hit me once, I'll live."  
  
"Really? Weren't you in unbearable pain just a few minutes ago?" She smiled at him, proving him wrong.  
  
"Well that was before you nursed me back to health." He smiled at her and kissed her soft lips. When the kiss was over she closed her eyes, bit her lower lip, and gave a slight moan. "Wow, what was that for?"  
  
"For getting me all exited." She gave him a seductive look.  
  
"You got all exited over that kiss?"  
  
"Who wouldn't?" She smiled as she pulled him down for another kiss. She put one hand on his back and the other one on his bare chest. *Groan* "What was that?"  
  
"Nothing, that's just you turning me on."  
  
"It sounded like you were in pain."  
  
"It's nothing, just forget about it." He placed all his weight on his left arm as he put his left hand on her chest. "May I?"  
  
"Do you even have to ask?" She joked with him.  
  
"I don't want to force you into doing anything you don't want to do."  
  
"That's sweet of you. But if there was something I didn't want you to do I'd let you know about it."  
  
"True." He said as he began to remove her priestess blouse from her. He once again saw her beautiful chest exposed. Her breasts were held in place by a wine colored bra this time. "Rei you are so beautiful, you just can't imagine."  
  
"If only I were half as beautiful as you."  
  
"Your beauty exceeds my hideousness a million times."  
  
"Chad you're not hideous at all." She said as she pushed his long brown hair away from his face. "You're perfect."  
  
"I'm not perfect."  
  
"Well then, you're perfect for me." She said as she let out a long sigh and nestled her nose against his. They both closed their eyes and held each other. They soon kissed yet again. This time the kiss took a lot longer and it was deeper.  
  
"Did you hear something?" She asked, suddenly breaking the kiss.  
  
"Not a thing. Why? Did you?" He asked looking her in the eyes. They both stood silent for a moment, trying to hear if any noises were being made.  
  
"No I guess not. Maybe I'm just a little paranoid."  
  
"Do you want me to check the dojo?"  
  
"No it's all right." She said, trying to get back into the kiss.  
  
He broke it, "Are you sure?"  
  
"Positive, forget I even mentioned it."  
  
"All right then, if you say so." They continued kissing. He worked his hand towards her chest and began to rub her breasts, exiting her nipples. *Moan* "Do you like that?"  
  
"Oh yea . . . Oh god don't stop please." He continued kissing and rubbing her breasts. He worked his hand in back of her and snapped the wine colored bra to reveal her perfect breasts. "Chad?"  
  
"Yes Rei?"  
  
"How bad do you want me?" He looked down at the growing bulge in his pants.  
  
"Like you won't believe!" He said as his eyes returned to her face. She looked down at his light blue pants. Her eyes widened but she soon returned his gaze and they continued to kiss. He stopped the kiss to look for the bra which was now poking the side of his arm. He picked it up and looked to the other side of the room to find a spot in which to throw it. His eyes looked around the room, past the door, towards his guitar case and back to the door? "Uh-oh!" He said in an almost frantic voice. The sound of a metal lunchbox was heard hitting the floor as Rei turned her head from Chad and looked over to the door to find a wide-eyed Lita standing in the doorway.  
  
"Lita! . . . Oh my goodness . . . Really . . . this is not what it looks like." Rei began to search for her bra which Chad still had in his hand. She yanked it from him and hurried to put it on. She threw Chad off her and got up from the bed. Her blouse was all wrinkled from her lying on top of it but she picked it up just the same and threw it on.  
  
"I was just . . . um . . ." Lita could not get over the scene. *Ahem* She cleared her throat and tried to act as if nothing had happened. "Your grandfather showed up at my house claiming you were starving him. He said he was starved so I used him as my cooking guinea pig. He tried all my new experiments in the kitchen." She placed her hand behind her head and gave an uneasy laugh. "I knew you wouldn't starve him on purpose. I figures you just didn't want to cook, so I thought I'd bring you and Chad here some food." She looked around the room, trying to avoid looking at the shirtless Chad. "Apparently you guys are ok food wise."  
  
"Yea we are." Rei said in an uncomfortable tone.  
  
"I guess you just wanted Grandpa out of the house huh?"  
  
"No no! That's not it at all. Lita let me explain." Rei began to get nervous.  
  
"It's ok. There's no need to explain. What you guys do is your business. I'm sorry I walked in on you two." She picked up the lunchbox from the floor, placed it on the night table next to the bed, walked out the door and shut it behind her." Rei ran after her but Lita was walking at a fast pace out of the dojo. Once Rei exited the dojo she understood why Lita was so anxious to leave. Parked in front of her house was Darien's car and in the passenger's seat was Serena.  
  
"Hello!" Serena yelled from the car in her usually cheery voice. Rei waved from the entrance of the dojo. Lita pulled her green baseball cap over her face, put her hands in her jean pockets and turned towards Rei.  
  
"As far as they are concerned, nothing has happened. You get me?" Rei nodded. "Now walk me to the car so Serena doesn't get out and go inside and find Chad.  
  
"All right." Rei said as she walked head down next to Lita.  
  
"Hey Rei!" Serena yelled out as she nearly bulged out of Darien's car seat.  
  
"Hey Serena." Rei said in a monotonous voice. "Hey Darien."  
  
"Hey Rei." Darien replied not looking at her in the face. Lita hopped in the car and sat in the backseat. She looked down at the floor and shut herself out from the world. Darien just looked at his rearview mirror at Lita. Lita looked up and gave her a bit of a shocked look.  
  
(She knows! Oh god Rei told her about last night! Now Lita is going to tell Serena and I'm going to be majorly screwed.)  
  
Serena knelt on the car seat and looked back at Lita's shocked look. She then looked at Darien's panicked stare and the way his hands were gripping the wheel. Finally she looked at Rei who just stared at the concrete wishing the Earth would swallow her whole.  
  
"Hey! What's going on here? What are you guys hiding from me?" She asked in her whiny voice.  
  
"NOTHING!" All three replied a bit on the defensive side.  
  
"Wha! Don't bit my head off guys! I just want to be clued in on what's going on!"  
  
"Trust me, you don't." Lita said in a bitchy tone. Darien put his head on the steering wheel and admitted mental defeat.  
  
"Darien what's wrong?"  
  
"Nothing Serena, everything is fine." He said as he lifted his head from the wheel and gave her a fake smile.  
  
"You guys are planning a party for me aren't you?" They all looked confused. "Guys . . . it's June 20, my birthday is in ten days! You did remember my birthday didn't you?"  
  
"Oh of course . . . Yea that's right . . ." All three tried to compensate for forgetting her birthday.  
  
"Can we get out of here please?" Lita finally asked.  
  
"Yes, lets." Darien said as he started the engine.  
  
"Wait no! I wanted to hang out with Rei in the dojo today!"  
  
"NO!" Lita yelled with fear. *Ahem* "I mean, Rei is very busy today."  
  
"Is that why her grandpa is at your house chowing down all your food and not leaving any for me?"  
  
"You could say that." Lita answered, again lowering her head. Darien looked back at her and realized that she was bothered by something, and it wasn't last night's incident. He gave a sigh of relief and his tense body relaxed. Still, he was suspicious of something. Lita and Rei had something up their sleeves. He would ask Lita later but he had to get away from Rei now. He felt awkward as hell and he sensed some tension between Lita and Rei as well. Serena was the only one who was lost.  
  
"Well come on Darien let's get out of here! I want to get to Lita's house before Rei's grandpa eats all of the desserts!" Serena yelled frantically.  
  
"Oh all right, let's go."  
  
"Darien! I mean NOW! He could have already finished the glazed doughnuts!" The thought of no doughnuts flashed through her mind. "Oh no you don't you greedy old man!" She said out loud as she sat in her set and clicked on her seat belt. "Come on Darien! We have food to save."  
  
"Yea Darien let's go." Lita grumbled.  
  
"Bye Rei! I'll come by later to return your grandpa and to sleep over with Rini and the girls!" Serena yelled enthusiastically.  
  
"All right Serena, I'll wait up for you." Rei replied in a low voice, almost as if some one had sucked out her spirit.  
  
"Bye Rei." Darien said with a weak smile.  
  
"See you later Rei. I'll come back in a few hours to talk to you all right?" Lita said to Rei with a small smile.  
  
"Yes, please do. There is much I need to tell you."  
  
"Just so you know, although it may seem otherwise, I'm not mad, I'm just a little shocked that's all." She gave a big grin. "You dirty dog."  
  
By now Darien was as lost as Serena but his questions were halfway answered when he saw Chad standing shirtless at the entrance of the dojo. He suddenly understood part of what had happened. He smiled at Rei and then began to move the car in reverse.  
  
"Bye Rei!" They all yelled in an enthusiastic voice. This cheered her up.  
  
"See you later guys. Bye Darien!" She yelled as she waved her hand at the car who pulled out and left. She had felt a little better knowing that Darien didn't feel awkward and that Lita wasn't mad at her. But after the car was gone she was hit by a strong gust of air and she knew that things between her and Chad were not going to be as easy as she thought. She turned around and looked at Chad who stood by the door holding the metal lunchbox. Slowly, she walked back to him. They entered the dojo together and the door slid closed behind them. 


	6. Sleepover

Ok, since I've had at least 6 requests cheering me on to continue the story I shall. I apologize for the delay but school is on my back and I have no time for anything. But hey, enough whining from me here continues the story!  
  
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Rei lay on her bed thinking about her current situation. She had embarrassed herself in front of Darien, felt completely shady around him, fooled around with Chad, nearly gotten caught by her Grandpa, hit Grandpa in an attempt to protect Chad, kicked her Grandpa out of his own dojo, messed with Chad some more, gotten caught by Lita, and now found herself trying to process all this information and figure out how everything was going to go tonight.  
  
"Forget it, this is too much, I need some air." With a quick hauling of her body she was upright and leaving her room. She walked down the long corridor, put on her slippers and opened the dojo's door. "I'll be back in a few," she announced. Her voiced seems to echo throughout the dojo and no one answered back. *Where is Chad?* She wondered. She took off her slippers, closed the door, and went into the kitchen. There she found Chad cooking up a storm with his headset on. She smiled softly and leaned against the entrance of the kitchen.  
  
"Oh oh oh!" A voice yelled in childlike excitement. "Out of my way Rei, I smell food!"  
  
"Huh?!" Rei turned around in a mess of confusion. To her surprise she found Grandpa making a dash towards the kitchen. As he ran in, he slipped on his socks and crashed into a wall. That caught Chad's attention, for as soon as Grandpa crashed he took off his headset, tossed it on the table and helped Grandpa off the floor.  
  
"Sensei! I didn't hear you come in! Oh god are you all right?"  
  
"I'll be all right as soon as I take a closer whiff of whatever it is you're cooking over there!"  
  
"Oh, well in that case," said Chad in relief, "sniff away!"  
  
Grandpa began lifting the lid on every pot and taking big whiffs of the boiling contents. "Wow, this is great! I'm going to be full tonight!"  
  
"Sensei," Chad bowed his head, "I thought you had already eaten at Lita's house."  
  
"Oh nonsense, I just tasted a thing or five of what she made." Grandpa put on his slyest smile.  
  
"Grandpa, when did you get back?"  
  
"Oh Rei, I got back about half an hour ago. I just took a bus here because I knew Chad would be cooking and I wanted to get something to eat before Serena got here, you know how she is."  
  
"Yes I do." Rei said with a slight smile. She wanted to ask Grandpa if he was ok, and she wanted to apologize for her previous behavior, but she knew her grandfather well, and his face told her that he understood and that her apology had been accepted. This took a huge load off her back because she had also had been bothered by the thought of how to beg for Grandpa's forgiveness. "Hey Grandpa I'm going to go out for a while ok?"  
  
"Oh, ok Rei, but if I were you I'd take some food with you because you never know if there will be anything waiting for you when you get back."  
  
"In case anything happens I'll save you something ok Rei?" Chad smiled.  
  
"Oh, thanks Chad, that's sweet of you."  
  
"You know it's no problem."  
  
With that, Rei walked over to the sliding door, put on her slippers, and disappeared into the darkness. She walked for a good 15 minutes until she reached a nearby park. She sat down near a tree and began to relax her mind. She hid her head between her knees and tried to rewind time and erase the events of the last few days.  
  
*Sigh* "Why is everything happening so suddenly? Why couldn't all this happen over an elongated period of time? Ah, forget it. I can't just sit here moping around, it's not me."  
  
She raised her head and stared at her surroundings. The fireflies were courting each other and there were so many of them that when a clump of them flashed it seemed as if Rei had her own fire work show happening in front of her.  
  
"Wow, look at them all, I had almost forgotten that this was their mating season."  
  
The fireflies danced in the air and some even landed on Rei's lap or shoulder. A pair of fireflies mesmerized her by courting in front of her eyes while another pair sneaked up on her and began coupling on her leg.  
  
"Hey! What do you think I am, a hotel?!" The fireflies on her leg didn't seem to care that she was complaining.  
  
"Jeez, even the fireflies are having sex. I wonder if Serena is a virgin? I know that Ami and Mina are. They are way too innocent to do anything, but Lita, could she be one?"  
  
The coupling fireflies finished consummating and flew off her leg.  
  
"What if I'm the only one? What if Ami has done it but she just keeps quiet about it. She can be very secretive sometimes. And Mina, she's very pretty and I wouldn't doubt that some guy has already been with her. Lita has had a lot of boyfriends and she looks so old even though she's 16, it must be her height. And Serena ... ... ... ... Serena is also 16 but is going out with Darien who is 22. An to be quite honest, what 22 year old guy would stay with a 16 year old if he wasn't getting anything in return?"  
  
A cat passed by her. It jumped in the air frantically trying to catch the fireflies. It succeeded in knocking a few down with its paw. The fireflies fell slowly to the ground, their rears flashing intermittently until they finally ceased to light up. The cat smacked the ground with its paw, slightly afraid of the dying bugs. When it regained confidence it licked the ground and Rei could see one of the tiny bugs on its tongue. The cat looked at Rei, making sure she wasn't coming towards him to steal his food.  
  
"Hmm ... ... ... tough luck little bugs," she said in a slightly indifferent voice. She got up from the grass and patted the back of her skirt, making sure to clear off all the dirt that had accumulated on it. She began to walk towards her dojo again. The cat skedaddled as soon as it saw Rei heading its way. She walked right by him and right by the dead fireflies on the floor. She was deep in thought, wondering about the girls. When she was close to her house she saw Darien's car pull up to her house with Serena in the front, Rini sitting on her lap and Lita, Mina, and Amy in the backseat. The girls got out and raced each other to the dojo, Amy and Lita just walked behind them. Darien started the car and left.  
  
"Here goes nothing." She walked to the dojo, opened the sliding door and stepped in. She placed her slippers next to each other and proceeded to her room where she found the whole gang laying down their sleeping bags.  
  
"Oh hey Rei!" Said a familiar singsong voice.  
  
"Hey Serena!"  
  
"We were wondering were you were," said Mina as she tried to figure out why her sleeping bag wasn't opening.  
  
"Mina, you closed the sleeping bag and jammed the zipper, and tugging it will only break it," said Ami who was trying desperately to cool Mina's frustration.  
  
"Hey Lita," greeted Rei, looking her in the eyes.  
  
"What's up Rei?" She replied in her usual manner and Rei could see nothing different in her eyes.  
  
*Ok, she's fine, that's a burden off my shoulders.* There was a knock on the panel door.  
  
"Ahem, girls, food's ready, last one to the table starves!" Grandpa began running as soon as he had finished his sentence.  
  
"Huh?" Serena's head went up. "Oh no you don't old man! Nothing comes between me and my food! AH!!!" With that Serena raced out after Grandpa leaving every one in the room with a huge sweat drop on their foreheads.  
  
"Wow, she really is a bottomless pit. At my house her and your grandfather were having an eating marathon. I'm surprised either of them can even move!" Lita put her finger on her chin and looked towards the ceiling. "Oh well," she finally said folding her hands behind her neck. "They both made great guinea pigs for my cooking experiments!" The girls laughed.  
  
"Well guys, should we go get something to eat while there is still food?" Rei joked.  
  
"Hey I'm down," Lita answered, "Serena and your grandfather cleaned out my fridge and I'm dying to eat something."  
  
"Ditto," said Ami and Mina. The girls all headed out the door in a single file and conversed among themselves as they headed towards the kitchen. Mina and Ami were in the front while Lita and Rei trailed off behind.  
  
"Are you ok?" Lita asked concerned.  
  
"Yea, I'm all right... ... ... I'm just a little confused about what's been going on lately. And I feel really ashamed with what you saw."  
  
"Hey don't sweat it Rei. I gotta admit, I was really shocked at first but hey, every one's been in some sort of situation like that."  
  
"Really Lita?"  
  
"Yea!" She said as she put her arms behind her neck again and looked up.  
  
"Um, Lita can I ask you something personal?"  
  
"Yea shoot."  
  
"Well there's something on my mind ... ... ..."  
  
"Hey come on guys! Rei! Your grandfather is reaching for my noodles! AHH!!! Let go you dirty old man!" Serena yelled as she began to fight with Grandpa who only laughed at her as he gulped down her noodles.  
  
"Jeez, that meatball head!!"  
  
"Rei," Lita grabbed her by the arm before she entered the kitchen. "You wanted to ask me something."  
  
"Oh, no its nothing, let's talk about it later."  
  
"You sure?"  
  
"Yea, it's nothing important."  
  
They ate in the kitchen, all 8 of them, Serena, Ami, Mina, Lita, Rei, Rini, Chad, and Grandpa. After dinner Grandpa went to meditate, Chad was doing the dishes with Rini and the girls went into Rei's room.  
  
"So what do you guys want to do?" asked Rei.  
  
"Hey I'm in the mood for truth or dare!" Serena yelled out.  
  
"What?" Every one asked in surprise.  
  
"Weren't we going to go over the math homework?" Ami asked  
  
*Huge sweat drop in the room*  
  
"Um, yea Ami, let's do that later." Mina smiled uneasily.  
  
"So we are playing truth or dare?" Ami asked troubled.  
  
"Yup!" Replied Serena speaking for every one as usual.  
  
"Well count me out!" Ami said in a convinced voice.  
  
"Aw come on Ami, don't be like that," Lita said smiling slyly.  
  
"Yea come on! Why are you so boring?" Mina asked.  
  
"Maybe she just has something big to hide and doesn't want us to find out!" Serena pointed out in her ninja costume. She snuck around Rei's room until she popped up behind Ami.  
  
"So Ami, whatcha hiding huh?" Lita asked. "Nothing!" Said Ami blushing.  
  
"I think you're hiding something!" Mina said.  
  
"So, who's playing truth or dare?" Rei asked.  
  
"I'm in," said Lita.  
  
"Me too!" Said Mina.  
  
"Ami?" Asked Rei.  
  
"Yes why not? I can avoid the truths by doing the dares."  
  
"A Ha! You are hiding something and I'm gonna find out what it is! Rei, I'm in!" Said Serena.  
  
"How about you Rei? You in?" Lita asked smirking.  
  
"I don't see why not. If every one's letting their secrets out it's only fair I do so too."  
  
"Oh, another secretive one." Mina smiled.  
  
"I get the feeling this is going to be a good game." Ami said somewhat intrigued.  
  
"Yea, I bet." Lita looked at Rei and smiled.  
  
And so began the game of truth or dare. 


	7. The Game Begins

^Note to the Fanfiction.net people: Thanks sooooo much for fixing that problem with the (...) becoming (.) You guys are THE BEST!! Anyways on with the story.  
  
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"Ahh." *sigh of relief* "I'm finally done! Gee, I hope that's the last time Serena gets invited."  
  
"She sure eats a lot!" Rini said through her laughter.  
  
"Well, it's not that... well it is that... but if she only used one plate. She used a plate for everything different she ate."  
  
"Yea and Mina too! They are such slobs."  
  
"Oh, Rini, don't say that. They're not THAT bad."  
  
"Yea, that's because you haven't seen Serena at home." She said under her breath.  
  
"What was that?" Asked Chad.  
  
"Oh, nothing." *smile* *blush*  
  
"Wow, you sure are cute aren't you?"  
  
*Intense blush* "Well, I don't take after my mother!"  
  
"You know Rini, now that I think of it, I don't know who your mother is. All I know is that you and Serena are cousins. So, who is your mother?"  
  
"Well... uh... my mother is... uh... well her name is... Takako Hibiya."  
  
"Takako... Takako... that sounds familiar. Were does she live?"  
  
"Oh... she lives REALLY far from now."  
  
"From now?"  
  
"I mean, from here! Sorry... I get confused a lot."  
  
"It's ok." *smiles* "Well, let's see what the girls are up to huh?"  
  
"Kay!" Rini gave a long sigh of relief.  
  
The two walked side by side, cleaning the floor with their clean, white socks. They walked until they reached the sliding door.  
  
"Ok Rini, this is where I leave you. Thanks for all your help."  
  
"Huh, wait! Where are you going?"  
  
"To my room, to lay down, to play some music, I haven't decided yet."  
  
"Why don't you come in with me?"  
  
"Rini, I think they want 'girl time'."  
  
"Well forget that! Forget them! I'm not going to let you be all alone in a dark room when you can be in a room full of beautiful women! ... ... Well ... ... at least one or two beautiful women."  
  
"What do you mean, one or two?"  
  
"Well we all know Serena isn't beautiful, Mina-chan is too immature and Rei is too loud and bossy to let any one get close and find her prettiness. So the only ones left are Ami and Lita. Amy is quiet and smart and Lita is mature and well mannered. So I think they are beautiful and the kind of girl that a guy like you should be with."  
  
"You think so huh?"  
  
"Yea, as a matter of fact," *sly smile* "I think you and Lita would make a cute couple."  
  
"Who makes a cute couple?" A voice came over from the now opening sliding door. Serena's head peeked out.  
  
"Huh?" Rini said halfway panicking.  
  
"Don't play dumb with me Rini! Come on! Tell me what you guys were talking about!"  
  
"Nothing really Serena, Rini was just telling me she watched this movie and that the leading stars made such a nice couple. Right Rini?"  
  
"Right!"  
  
"Hmm...Chad, you're not lying to me are you?!"  
  
"Huh? I'd never dream of doing such a thing."  
  
"Good because you know I'm sneaky and I know what happens, when it happens, where people are where it happens... ... by the way ... ... where did Rini go?" "Uh." *sweat drop* "She's been inside for a few minutes now."  
  
"Well of course, I knew that!" She began to go inside as she saw Chad heading to his room. "Hey, where are you going?"  
  
"Why is every one asking me that? I'm going to my room to relax."  
  
"Well come in here with us!"  
  
"No you know it's ok... ... ..." Before he knew it, Serena had a hold of his hand and was dragging him into the room.  
  
"Hey guys!" She popped back in the room with Chad held by the hand. "Look at what I found wandering the hallways!"  
  
Everyone in the room stared at Chad and suddenly the commotion broke out.  
  
"Serena what are you doing!" Mina yelled out.  
  
"O goodness I'm wearing nothing but a T-shirt and my underwear!" Ami yelled out.  
  
"Oh guys, stop being such girls. It's not like he's here to be a pervert." Lita said laid back as usual.  
  
"Wow, sorry step yelling. I told Serena not to bring me here. I told her I'd be fine in my room by myself but she just..."  
  
"AWWWWW!" A collective sound hit the room.  
  
"Poor Chad!" Mina exclaimed.  
  
"You can stay here, we don't want you to be all alone." Ami said.  
  
"But, you're in your T-shirt and your underwear... all of you."  
  
"Well," *smirk* "We know you're not here to check US out." Lita said.  
  
Chad blushed.  
  
"Ok good! It's been decided, he's staying." Serena yelled out triumphantly.  
  
"Yay!" All the girls exclaimed.  
  
"Um, Rei, is it ok with you if I stay here?" Chad asked.  
  
"Sure, why not? I don't mind. It's nice of you to ask for permission. At least SOMEONE has manners." She looked straight at Serena.  
  
"Huh? What'd I do?" Serena looked at Rei clueless. The group chuckled.  
  
"REI!" Grandpa yelled out. "PHONE!"  
  
"Geez, must he be so loud?" *sweat drop* "I'm coming Grandpa!" She got off her bed and ran out of the room.  
  
"So," said Chad "I see a math book, are you girls doing homework?"  
  
"NO!" All the girls screamed as soon as Ami turned her head to look at the book.  
  
"We're playing truth or dare." Lita said, "Care to join us?"  
  
"Sure! I love this game!" Chad replied.  
  
"Truth or dare? Cool! In school, this girl named Kakira got dared to lick a garbage can! It was so funny!"  
  
Every one's eyes bulged out.  
  
(Crap, Rini's here, that means we can't play.) Mina thought.  
  
(Great, the kid's here.) Lita thought.  
  
(Thank god, Rini saved me.) Ami thought.  
  
(Huh? Why is everyone looking at Rini like that?) Chad pondered.  
  
(Oh that Rini ruins everything! If she stays I won't find out any good secrets.) Serena was angry.  
  
"Back!" Rei announced as she re-stepped into the room. "What's with the angry faces? Oh, Rini, Darien called. He said he's outside the dojo just in case you wanted to sleep over at his house. He says he bought ice cream and rented a movie and he thought you might enjoy it."  
  
"Ice cream? Yay! But, you guys are playing truth or dare and I want to play too." Rini frowned.  
  
"Oh...umm... yea I forgot," Rei scratched her head, "He said he wanted to play truth or dare too, hehe."  
  
"Really? Cool! Well guys, sorry but I have to go! Darien is waiting for me." Rini picked up her sleeping bag and her bunny backpack and ran out of the room.  
  
"Hey! I want ice cream too!" Serena cried.  
  
"Well it's either ice cream or secrets." Mina said.  
  
"Well then forget the ice cream! I'm dying to know what you guys are hiding."  
  
"Great! Then let the games begin!" Lita announced.  
  
"Wow, you're exited." Ami said.  
  
"I am, I'm dying to hear some of the things I know certain one of you guys have to confess." Lita replied as she looked over at Chad.  
  
"Wow Chad has a secret?" Serena asked in her ninja outfit once more.  
  
"Well ... I ... not really ... no ... there's no secret." He looked over at Rei.  
  
"Nothing to tell huh Chad? Well maybe Rei has something to say to that since apparently she knows what you're hiding." Serena zoomed through the room and appeared next to Rei. "So Rei, what's he hiding?"  
  
"I don't know, ask him!" She replied blushing.  
  
"You don't know huh?" Lita said still smirking. "Let's see about that. I think we should start this game before any one changes their mind."  
  
"I agree!" Mina and Serena said in a heartbeat.  
  
"There's no way out of this is there?" Ami asked.  
  
"NO!" Serena, Mina, and Lita yelled.  
  
"Oh." Chad and Ami lowered their heads in defeat.  
  
"Rei?" Chad asked. "Are you in or out?"  
  
"I'm in." She smiled.  
  
"Then let's begin." Chad said as he sat on the bed next to her and held her hand.  
  
"What's this?!" Serena asked frantically as every one else dropped their jaw, all except Lita of course. "Play and you'll know." Rei teased.  
  
"In that case," Said a blushing Ami, "I'm in as well."  
  
"Perfect!" Lita exclaimed. "Here we go, who's first?"  
  
They looked at one another.  
  
"Well, since no one's volunteering I guess we'll have to pick with straws." Lita said.  
  
"I'll get some." Chad offered as he exited the room and came back with 6 straws and handed them to Lita.  
  
She cut the tip of one straw and held all 6 of them in her hand.  
  
"Now since I know which is the short straw, I'll be fair and let you all pick and I'll keep the straw that stays behind ok?" Lita smiled.  
  
"Fine with me." Rei said. "I'll pick first." She picked a straw  
  
"I guess I'm next," Chad picked a straw as well.  
  
"Here goes nothing," Mina said as she got hers.  
  
"I guess it's only fair." Ami picked hers.  
  
"I have no secrets!" Serena got her straw too,  
  
"And here's mine," Lita said as she opened her hand and took the only straw left. "Aw man I got the short one!"  
  
The rest of the groups gave a long sigh of relief.  
  
"No secrets huh Serena?" Mina teased.  
  
"Hey you seemed pretty relieved yourself MINA!" She replied.  
  
"Guys guys! Settle down and let's get this thing started." Chad pleaded as he got between them.  
  
"That's right." Mina said.  
  
"We already have a victim." Serena smiled evilly.  
  
"So Lita," Rei finally asked. "Truth or dare?" 


	8. Dare Victim

"I choose... ... dare." Lita said.  
  
"Oh I see Lita, you are afraid of the truth aren't ya?" Serena pried.  
  
"No I'm not, it's just that I'm in the mood for a little challenge right now."  
  
"Wait guys." Rei interrupted. "How is this going to work?"  
  
"Huh?" Lita and Serena were both confused.  
  
"I mean, I asked Lita 'truth or dare', does that mean I get to ask her a question if she says 'truth'?" Rei asked halfway confused herself.  
  
"Hey! No Fair! I want to ask her something too!" Mina protested.  
  
"Yea! Same here." Serena joined.  
  
"Well I think I know what we should do." All heads turned to Ami. "It doesn't matter who asks 'truth or dare', if Lita chooses 'dare' then we ALL dare her to do something different, so that altogether she has 5 dares. And the same goes for her if she chooses 'truth'."  
  
"That makes sense." Rei concurred.  
  
"But wait... ... ..." All heads turned now to Chad. "What if, she's dared to do something by Rei and she does it and then something by Ami and she does it but what if when she gets to Mina she doesn't want to do Mina's dare?"  
  
"Good point Chad." Ami agreed. "In that case, she's going to have Mina's 'truth'."  
  
"I like that!" Serena jumped with ecstatic joy. "That way we can have both truths and dares in a single round! Great job Ami and Chad!"  
  
"Thanks." They both said with an uneasy smile.  
  
"Well then Lita... ... ..." Rei began when suddenly everyone was looking at Chad again. "Huh?" Rei turned her head as well. Chad was sitting next to her, staring at Serena who was still jumping for joy. His eyes were wide open and his nose was bleeding.  
  
"Serena!" Mina yelled as she threw her body onto Serena's, holding her legs, trying to prevent her from jumping.  
  
"What's wrong?" Serena asked confused.  
  
"Your shirt only reaches your waist normally. Now you're jumping all over the place and your shirt is going up really high." Mina explained. "So? It's just us girls here." Serena smiled and stuck her tongue out.  
  
"Umm... ..." Ami interrupted and just pointed at Chad who was beet red and practically hemorrhaging from his nose.  
  
"WHAT!? I'm so sorry! WOW! I almost forgot you were here." Serena broke out in an uneasy hysterical laughter of discomfort.  
  
Every one sweat dropped and immediately looked at Rei whose bangs covered her face and had her head bowed.  
  
"Hey Rei? You all right there?" Lita questioned.  
  
"Fine." Rei replied lifting her head. Her eyes were a little red and watery and every one in the room stood quiet.  
  
"Wait I have an idea." Lita began. "Since we are all in our T-shirt and panties it's only fair that Chad strips down a little too."  
  
"What?" Chad was alarmed. "You know, I just remembered I have to go to my room and... ... ..." He began to slowly reach for the sliding door but as soon as he turned his head towards the door all the girls except for Rei and Ami were barricading the door, preventing his exit. "What are you guys doing?"  
  
"So, you have to strip down a little and you're already running away?" Lita jumped in, holding the door closed with her hand and moved closer to Chad.  
  
"Yea Chad it's only fair." Mina added as she put her hands on his shirt.  
  
"She's right!" Serena concluded as she slid her hands from his chest down to his pant buckle. Chad's nose immediately began to bleed, three women, his ultimate fantasy.  
  
"STOP IT!" Rei yelled at the top of her lungs. All heads turned towards her. Her face was as red as could be, her hair was all messed up, her teeth were showing and she looked like some one who had just escaped a local mental institute. "STOP IT! WHAT ARE YOU ALL DOING?"  
  
"Nothing... ... ... we were just... ... ..." Serena began completely nervous.  
  
"Just trying to get him to play fair... ... ..." Mina concluded as she quickly let go of his shirt watching as Serena let go of the pant buckle.  
  
"Yea Rei, chill." Lita winked at her. "Just let him go! NOW!" Rei continued in her jealous fit. The girls did as asked. They let go of Chad and sat back on their individual sleeping bags. Chad was there, holding onto the door, breathing as if he had just ran a mile, his head down and his eyes closed as he panted. "Are you all right Chad?" She asked.  
  
"Oh..." He said looking up. "I'm fine Rei." He went over and sat next o her again. His heart was still beating uncontrollably and he felt that soon it would be overworked and stop beating altogether.  
  
"You know Chad..." Ami began. "The girls are right. How is it fair that we are here wearing almost nothing and you are fully dressed?" She smiled and looked up into Chad's eyes.  
  
"Wow Ami." Lita asked staring. "I've never seen that side of you!"  
  
"Ditto." Mina added.  
  
"Well, that's why we are playing aren't we? To find out everything about each other." Ami said calmly.  
  
"I have a suggestion!" Serena jumped up again but landed quickly and pulled her shirt down blushing. "I think we should play a game of only truths. Dares are fun but we are more interested in truths!"  
  
"Hey no! That's not fair." Lita protested. "The game is called 'truth or dare', hence there should be both truths and dares in it."  
  
"But... ... dares are so boring sometimes." Mina added.  
  
"Then we're just going to have to spice them up a bit." Ami concluded. Again, every one was shocked.  
  
"Yea Ami... ... ... cool ... ... ... then lets begin!" Mina chuckled.  
  
"But first... ... ..." Rei jumped in. "Chad... ... ... they're right, you're going to have to strip down to our level."  
  
"But... but... it's... I mean... I'm shy and... ..."  
  
"Just do it." She ordered half smiling half plotting.  
  
"Fine." He said as he gave in. First he took off his socks as he stood in the middle of the bedroom. He took his sweet time with the socks, hoping that would be all. When he saw the girls shaking their heads he began to take off his shirt. He pulled it over his head and tossed it to the side of the room were Mina was.  
  
"Wow I feel like I'm getting a strip show!" She joked as she looked at the shirt beside her. "But still," she said looking at his smooth, semi- muscular chest, "it's not enough." It was just as Chad feared. He had to keep going. He unbuckled his pants as he looked up at the ceiling, imagining he was in a less embarrassing situation right now. He unzipped himself and began to pull each pant leg off himself. The girls all blushed as he threw his pants over to Ami's side of the room and sat down on the bed next to Rei.  
  
"So," Lita said staring and not all mentally there.  
  
"Should we start?" asked Mina halfway drooling.  
  
"Yes lets!" Rei smiled trying not to look at any part of Chad for fear of her actions. Chad just sat there looking down, making circles on the floor with his big toe. "Ok!" Rei said as she clapped her hands as loud as she could, taking every one out of their daze and bringing them back into the room. "Lita," she called out as Lita stared at her and smiled uneasily. "Truth or dare?"  
  
"I told you already, dare." She answered boldly.  
  
"Hmm... ... ... what can I dare you to do?" Rei pondered. "Skip and come back to me."  
  
"Oh Oh!" Serena yelled out. "I have one!"  
  
"Lord..." Lita knew what she was in for. "Go ahead."  
  
"I dare you to kiss him!" She squealed as she pointed at Chad.  
  
"WHAT?!" Every one screamed.  
  
"No!" Rei objected. "No way! This is not happening! Serena you meatball head what's your problem? When did we decide this was going to be the NR17 version of 'truth or dare'?"  
  
"Well," Ami began. "We didn't say it was going to be like this... but at the same time... we didn't say it couldn't be like this."  
  
"AMI!" Rei was enraged. "Then let's decide that it can't be like this!"  
  
"Too late!" Serena yelled out. "The game's already started."  
  
"She's right you know," Mina butted in, "the game's already started and you can't decide on the rules mid-game just because you don't like them."  
  
"I hate to agree but she's right Rei." Chad added.  
  
"Oh, you just want Lita on you!" She rebelled.  
  
"That's not true," he said looking at Lita, "well ... ... no! It's not true Rei!"  
  
"Rei, don't tell me you're jealous." Mina smirked.  
  
"Me? Jealous? Ha! Me jealous of them? Why? I have no reason to be jealous... ... ... me jealous HA!" She began to get uneasy.  
  
"Then why don't you let them do her dare?" Serena and Ami both asked.  
  
"Fine, go ahead. I'll be in the kitchen getting a glass of water." With that she got up from the bed and slammed the sliding door behind her.  
  
"What's her deal?" Serena asked in her confused face.  
  
"It doesn't matter, she'll be back." Mina said as she let her hand swish through the air in her usual 'nothing matters' notion followed by a smile. "Back to the game. Lita.... Your dare."  
  
"Yea yea I know." She said as she walked over to Chad who was sitting on Rei's bed, wearing his black boxer shorts, and looking at Lita as she walked over. "Let's get this over with huh?"  
  
"Yea" *gulp* "Let's." She put one knee on the bed and climbed on it. Chad just leaned back slightly, his eyes bulging out of his head, his face showing his never- ending nervousness. She sat on the bed and jiggled her butt a bit as she wrapped her legs around his waist and moved up as close as she could.  
  
"K, you ready?"  
  
"Yea, I guess." He said as he began to move his lips closer to hers.  
  
~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` ~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`  
  
"I can't believe that meatball head! How can she do this? And Lita! HA! She was just dying to be all over him." Rei was glowing with anger as she tried to drink down her glass of water. "And he... ... ..." She began to look sad. "He didn't exactly object either." She set down the glass on the table and began to cry, trying to keep her sobs to a minimum so that no one would hear her. "No," She lifted her head. "This is just a game, I'm not going to let this get to me. He's doing what he must do and so is she. I can't act childish." She got up from the floor and headed towards her room. *Sigh* She opened the sliding door slowly and as quietly as she could and entered. She saw Chad and Lita on her bed, engaging in a most passionate kiss that not even she could have gotten from him in the previous days. Suddenly a knot formed at her throat. She couldn't handle the pain, she couldn't control the anger. But instead of going crazy she just sat down on the floor next to Ami and watched them.  
  
"Are you all right Rei?" Ami whispered without taking her eyes off Chad and Lita.  
  
"I'm fine." Rei asked, trying to hide the sobs that were coming. Lita's chest was now pressing against Chad's and she moved him back slightly so that he was lying down. She unwrapped her legs and set them at his side. She was now straddling him and fixing her ponytail. As soon as she finished she bent down and began to kiss him again. The rest of the room fell in shock, including Chad whose eye's bulged out as she began to slip her tongue in his mouth. Rei was now taking deep breaths but her tears were still dropping on her shirt and her breathing began to get irregular. Serena looked over at Rei and frowned, feeling that this was all somehow her fault. She felt like crying all of a sudden. She had somehow hurt one of her dear friends and did not know why.  
  
"Ok guys, the dare is over!" Serena yelled out triumphantly. Mina sweat dropped as she jumped to pull her shirt down. "Oh." *blush* "I forgot again."  
  
"Aw come on, this just started." Lita said as she sat up on Chad's pelvis. She hadn't heard Rei come in, but as soon as she got off Chad and looked around the room she saw Rei, head down, sitting between Ami and Mina. "Oh." She said as she slapped Chad on his thigh as a sign to sit up.  
  
"I'm coming." He said as he sat up on the bed and let his legs hang down and touch the floor. "Wow."  
  
"You're coming huh?" Mina joked.  
  
"Almost!" He replied taking deep breaths to try and calm himself. As soon as he felt relaxed enough and saw that the bulge in his boxers was starting to die off slowly he looked up at the room with his blushing face. To his surprise, the first face that met him was Rei's who had just begun to look up. "I mean, ha ha ha, I wasn't really about to come. What a funny joke Mina ha ha ha." His smile was nervous and it broke off in certain parts. The bulge in his pants seemed to have fainted because it was suddenly not present and Chad felt guilty for carrying out Lita's dare. "Rei... ... ..." He began.  
  
"Excuse me, I need to use the bathroom." She said as she once again got up and headed out.  
  
"Aw, Rei wait!" Chad begged as he ran out after her.  
  
"Are they going out?" Serena asked.  
  
"Don't know." Lita answered.  
  
"But there is definitely something between them." Ami confirmed.  
  
"I'm with you." Mina added.  
  
(I wonder if they're ok.) Lita was on the only guilt trip right now. But as hard as she tried to think of Rei and Chad all she could think of was Chad's kiss and how he had exited her. She wanted some one else to dare them two to do something but she knew that after this mess no one would dare. In a sense, she was mad at Rei for being so damn emotional. At the same time she felt bad. What if she had ruined their 'relationship'? What if this caused her to lose one of her best friends? That was a high possibility. But still, Chad's kiss was too good to forget. And so, Lita sat down next to Mina who gave her a sly smile, put her hands behind her neck, leaned back against the wall, and began to imagine all sorts of scenarios in which she and Chad were the leading couple. 


	9. Bathroom Break

"Rei please!" Chad shouted as he followed her into the bathroom.  
  
"What do you want Chad? Can I please pee in peace?"  
  
"Oh, if that's what you're gonna do ... ... then I'm sorry... ... I thought you came in here because you were upset." He felt relieved.  
  
"Upset? Why would I be upset Chad?" She said as she turned around, revealing her eyes shining with tears.  
  
"Rei... I..."  
  
"Maybe I'm upset because in there Lita had her legs wrapped around you and she was sticking her tongue down your throat!" She was obviously enraged.  
  
"But Rei! It was a dare! It meant NOTHING to me!" He said in his defense.  
  
"Oh yea Chad, that's why you tried to SO hard to peel her off you right?"  
  
"I had to comply with the dare Serena gave Lita. I had no choice!" He said panicking.  
  
"Forget it Chad. It's done, I don't care about what happened in that room."  
  
"Well obviously you care if you're crying." He said trying to wipe her tears away. She turned her head from him. "Rei come on! It meant NOTHING to me! It wasn't even a good kiss!"  
  
"Not a good kiss huh? Well it was good enough to wake him up!" She said as she pointed down at his crotch. "And plus, when Serena FINALLY realized how much it bothered me and she told you guys to stop you had to take a few minutes to calm down about how much she had exited you."  
  
"No no no! That's not it! I had to take a few minutes to breathe because Lita had her tongue all down my throat! I couldn't breathe! Don't take it the wrong way please"  
  
"Take it the wrong way?" This was it. "How can I take it the wrong way that the guy I like, and supposedly likes me back, is kissing my best friend on a dare, is letting her wrap her legs around him, is letting her get up on top of him, and is engaging in the most passionate kiss I've ever seen. That kiss was better than the kisses on those dirty movies!"  
  
"You watch those?" Chad's attention quickly changed its focus.  
  
"NO!" A few hairs stood up on her head. "That's not the point Chad!" He smiled.  
  
"Then what is the point?" He was a little confused.  
  
"The point is not that you did it, the point is... ... ..."  
  
"The point is?" He was eager to know.  
  
"That you never did that with me like that. With me everything was all soft and slow and we didn't really get anywhere. If you were left alone with her for another 10 minutes she might have walked out wondering if she was pregnant!"  
  
"Is that what this is about?" He smiled. "Are you jealous."  
  
"NO... ... Well yes."  
  
"Rei, look, I did what I did on a dare. I got exited because I started to imagine it was you on top of me instead of her. And I do things slowly with you because you mean a lot to me and I don't want to rush into anything. There's plenty of time."  
  
She started to blush, feeling loved and really stupid all at the same time.  
  
"But if it helps any... ... ..." He said as he put his hand on her chin and raised it a bit. He smiled. She looked into his eyes. All she could see was a glassy figure; her eyes were still full of tears. He wiped them away with a slow movement of his thumb across her face. He put his other arm on her lower back and moved her closer, so close that their bodies were touching and they could feel each other's breathing. He pushed her hair out of her face and kissed her nose. She smiled and almost started to cry again. "No, don't do that." He said as he smiled at her. He kissed her forehead and put her face in his chest. He could feel her calming down a little. "Better?" He asked as her face slowly left his chest.  
  
"Yea, lots." She answered. "What did you mean when you said 'If it helps any?'"  
  
"Well I was gonna do something but its not appropriate." He responded as he scratched the back of his head.  
  
"What? I want to know now?" She gave a childish smile.  
  
"You sure?" He questioned.  
  
"Yea, what were you gonna do?" She asked again.  
  
"This..." He said as he bent his head down to kiss her lips. He held the side of her face in one hand and with the other he held her lower back. The kiss was soft, gently, and slightly playful as he licked her upper lip.  
  
"Is that what it was?" She said blushing as the kiss ended.  
  
"Not really." He toyed.  
  
"Then what was it?"  
  
"This..." He kissed her in the same manner as before. Her lips were so soft, her breathing a little difficult because of the crying. He began to get exited. He began to open his lips a little and tried to get her to do the same. In no time the innocent peck had become a passionate kiss. The kiss was better than Lita's, a million times better. He was going deeper, faster, and was getting a lot more exited. Rei thought of all of this in her head. She felt like she had conquered Lita and gotten her man back. After feeling sure of herself, she began to get a little rough as well. The hormones were raging and the bathroom window began to steam up a little. Rei lifted her leg up to Chad's thigh. He let go of her face and grabbed the leg. She smiled a little at this foolishness but continues kissing. Not long after he moved his hand from her back and placed one of her arms around his neck. Rei was a little confused. "Hang on tight" He said. She did as told and soon his arm was behind the knee of the second leg. He picked up her leg and put it on his other thigh. She felt a little scared, not being able to feel the floor, but went back to kissing him. She wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled herself as close as she could for fear of falling to the floor. "Don't worry, I've got you. I won't let you fall." He said, almost as if he knew what she was thinking. "I know." She said as she pet his hair with her free arm and looked into his eyes. A new kiss began, rougher than the other one, if that's even possible. His hands left her legs and seeked a new place. One arm wrapped itself along her back, making sure she didn't fall. After all, this was the first time she was ever in a position like this. The other arm went under her butt, also to support her but in his mind he was wishing she had worn a skirt, or was in her underwear like the rest of the girls, but he was stuck with a pair of gray sweats. He was kind of mad deep down. She was exiting him and he could do nothing about it other than kiss her. The position was a little tricky to fondle anything so he just accepted it and went back into the kiss. (What if Sensei or one of the girls walks in?) He pondered. (I could be in real big trouble for this... ...) She moaned softly as she moved her head back so he could kiss the front of her neck. (Forget it, this is way worth it) He kissed her neck with no hesitation. Every little kiss on her milk-white neck was the world to him. Soon she moved her head to the side, her hair moving closer to the ground as he began to suck on her luscious neck. He took small breaths here and there and he regretted every second he had to be away form her neck, from her beauty, from her. He walked slowly, wobbling a bit like a penguin, until he reached the basin. He gently sat her down on it and walked closer to move in between her legs. They both sighed. He looked in her eyes, seeking approval of whether to stop or keep going. She just stared back at him. (Come on give me a sign, any sign, don't just leave me hanging here!) She just kept on staring at him blankly. (I think you're teasing me. Is that what you're doing Rei?) She smiled almost as if she could read his mind, and she probably could. (There it is. There's the sign.) He put his hands on her waist and went down for a kiss. "What are you doing?" She asked suddenly. (SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!) "Um, nothing." He smiled. "Sorry." He looked down, feeling as if he'd crossed the line. (What the hell is this? She's jealous that Lita got a rougher kiss than her. She's mad that Lita got on top of me. In one word she's jealous. And here I am, trying to prove to her that she means more to me than Lita a billion times, trying to show her that Lita's kiss was nothing compared to her kisses, trying to give her a rough kiss like she wanted, and now out of nowhere she backs out. WHAT THE HELL?) Just as he was about to let her go and back away to help her down from the basin she asked.  
  
"Where do you think you're going?"  
  
"Huh?" He was lost. She suddenly took off her shirt, exposing her young, bare breasts. She grabbed his boxers and pulled him close like he was before. He was once again between her legs and as exited as he had been 5 minutes ago. She put his left arm on her hip and the other one on her left breast. Chills went down his spine at her boldness. Was this the same Rei that was too shy to kiss in public? The same innocent Rei that couldn't stand being looked at unless she was fully dressed? He moved his hand slightly on her breast and her breathing began to labor itself, this time crying had no fault.  
  
"Rei what if some body walks in?"  
  
"Are you scared?" She asked seriously.  
  
"No, I'm just saying. What if Sensei walks in?"  
  
"He's in his own world now. After dinner he's usually out for the night."  
  
"What about your friends?"  
  
"They know I'm here and they probably think I'm blowing off on you."  
  
"Oh." He said feeling relieved. He continued to work on her chest and she began to instinctively grind against him. It was hard because she was sitting on the basin, but she somehow managed to get her desires across. They were like a pair of dogs in heat, stopping at nothing to get their needs met. Before Chad could say anything she was putting his hand in her sweats, and so the night moved on and time stopped for them in that bathroom. 


	10. Secrets Revealed

-*- Back at the room -*-  
  
"Well then, what should we do now?" Ami asked.  
  
"I don't know maybe we should continue the game," Mina replied.  
  
"Guys I'll be right back." Lita got up and exited the room.  
  
"... Well ..." Ami stuttered.  
  
"Hey if I stole my best friend's man I'd feel the same way!" Serena announced.  
  
"Serena," Mina began, "Darien was into Rei before he was into you. So technically you did steal her boyfriend."  
  
"Hey! That's not true! Darien has always been my sweetie, mine! Not Rei's, he never liked Rei, she liked him." Serena was beet red with anger.  
  
"That's not true!" Mina teased.  
  
"Is too!" Serena whined persistently.  
  
"AMI!" Both of them yelled as their heads turned towards the genius.  
  
"Well, technically you are both right."  
  
"Huh? Ami who's side are you on?" Serena asked indignantly.  
  
"Neither." She replied.  
  
"Wait, how can we both be right?" Mina questioned.  
  
"Yea." Serena joined in.  
  
"I see it like this. Rei liked Darien, and they were going places together, eating together, playing video games together, and hanging out at her temple. Which in my eyes says that there is something going on between them. And since he couldn't stand Serena at that point in his life it makes sense to me. On the other hand, they weren't technically going out. Rei and Darien didn't kiss during that time period. As a matter of fact, there was only one time they kissed, and that was a few days ago!" Ami announced.  
  
"WHAT?!" Serena yelled at the top of her lungs.  
  
*Ami sweat drops heavily*  
  
"I'm just joking around Serena. Darien and Rei have never kissed to my knowledge." She had her fingers crossed behind her. She started having a flashback of the day Darien came to her. It was dark, around ten o' clock at night, when her phone rang.  
  
"Hello?" she answered groggily.  
  
"Ami? It's Darien, I need to talk to you. Can I go over your house?"  
  
"Uh, sure when?" she asked still half asleep.  
  
"Well, I'm getting out of the car now, and I'm about to walk into your building." He replied.  
  
"WHAT?" Ami jumped out of bed, hung up the phone and looked out her window. She saw Darien hanging up his cell phone, looking up at her window and waving at her. (God what is going on? Why is Darien here? Serena! Something happened to Serena!) Darien started to walk into the building. Ami looked around her room for her slippers and ran to get the door. When she opened she saw a very smooth- looking, but very nervous Darien standing at her door with his right arm resting on the frame of the door. "Come in." She said.  
  
"Thanks." He whispered as he stepped into her home.  
  
"What's going on Darien? Is Serena all right?" Ami asked almost panicking. "Answer me!"  
  
"... She's fine Ami ... no need to worry."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Ami I need to confess something to you, but I need to know that I can trust you." He looked at her as they both sat down, Ami on her bed, Darien on a small table near the bed. His eyes met hers and there was a look of panic in both their eyes.  
  
(Oh God, what if he's here to tell me some horrible secret that I can't divulge to Serena?)  
  
"Well?" he asked impatiently.  
  
"Huh?" said Ami coming out of her daze.  
  
"Can I confide in you Ami?"  
  
"Of course, what are friends for?" she smiled a bit uneasily.  
  
"Ok, here goes." He sighed. "A few days ago Rei told me she had some chores to do so she might not make it to school. I offered to give her a lift to school since Serena was faking ill to skip a test." They both smiled. "I dropped her off at school and went off to work. As I left work I felt a bit lonely, you know, not having Serena with me in the car after school to cheer me up. So I figured I'd be nice and give Rei a lift home."  
  
(Oh God, can it be? Did Darien cheat on Serena with Rei?)  
  
"... it was still early and both of us were pretty hungry, so I thought we could go grab a bite to eat at our usual place. After the food I took her home. We talked in the car for a sec, and I complimented her hair, and suddenly ... out of nowhere ... she kissed me." Ami's eyes widened. "It's not what you think. I quickly pulled back and told her my heart belonged to Serena. Nothing else happened after that. But, still, somehow I feel this guilt inside me."  
  
"Darien, if you know you've done nothing then what do you fear?"  
  
"That some one saw it, or that some one knows, some one like Chad, or Lita. The other day Serena, Lita and I passed by the dojo to see Rei. Lita went inside to give her a snack she made. Suddenly, Lita walks out of the dojo with an infuriating face, followed by Rei, who had her head bowed, and Chad who stood at the door, looking at me, with a face full of surprise. What if Rei told Chad and Lita? What if Lita tells Serena? My life is ruined."  
  
"Darien, calm down." Ami pleaded. "Look, I know you're nervous, but you're drowning in a glass of water. If what you say is true, Rei would have been too embarrassed to tell anyone, let alone Chad who can hardly keep his mouth shut around her. I also think you need to pay better attention to detail. What if there was another scene playing in back of Rei, Lita, and Chad's head that day?"  
  
"Huh?" Darien said super confused.  
  
"Well, what if Lita walked in the dojo and found Rei and Chad doing something they shouldn't be doing?"  
  
"You mean like ..." Darien said.  
  
"Exactly!" Ami replied. "It sounds very fishy to me. And I know Rei well enough to know that she wouldn't tell any one about something like that. So take it easy, the only ones that know are Rei, you, and I. No one else knows other than us, especially not Serena. If something was bothering her I'd be the first one to know about it and so far nothing's wrong with her."  
  
"Oh Ami I feel so relieved!" Darien smiled. "Thank you so much for everything, you're a great person."  
  
"No problem." She said giggling.  
  
"Let me ask you something and be honest."  
  
"Sure."  
  
"Do you think I was to blame for what happened with Rei?"  
  
"No, it sounds to me like she misinterpreted everything that you were trying to do for her."  
  
"So I shouldn't feel guilty?"  
  
"Not in my opinion."  
  
"Ami..."  
  
"Yes Darien...."  
  
"AMI....AMI....AMI!"  
  
"Huh?" she said as she snapped back into the present.  
  
"What's this about Rei and Darien?" Serena was all over Ami yelling, demanding an answer.  
  
"As I said Serena, it was a joke, jeesh take it easy will you?" Ami replied smiling.  
  
~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` ~`~`~`  
  
(Ok, I'm on a major guilt trip. I need to go and apologize to Rei. Now were did she go? Well, she said she was going to the bathroom, but that is the last place she probably went knowing her. Hmm, maybe she went outside to get some fresh air.)  
  
Lita paced around the dojo as she looked for her slippers.  
  
"Ah they're back in the room, blah!" She walked back to the room, opened the sliding door, saw Serena attempting to strangle Ami, Mina trying to get her off Ami, Ami laughing her head off, and her slippers next to the gang. She jumped over all the legs, butts, and faces that were in her way, got her slippers, and exited the room. "Ok then," she said as she put her slippers on and exited the dojo. "Were can she be?" She began to look around the lawn, checking the scene once or twice to make sure no one was around to see her, after all, she was in her underwear. She went to look in the sacred shrine. That looked like a good place to hide and cry your eyes out. She climbed up the sacred steps, bowed her head, and looked around for Rei...nothing. She continued to look intermittently through her surroundings but couldn't find Rei or Chad anywhere. "Ah forget it!" She said as she turned around and headed for the dojo. She took a quick glance over to the bathroom window that looked out to the training field. "What's this?" The window was completely fogged and caught her attention. Lita walked slowly towards it and tried to peek inside. She could see nothing and tried to wipe the window. Nothing happened; she remembered this thing Ami once told her when she was on one of her dorky intelligence trips. Windows fog from the inside, so if you want to see something you have to be in the warm side of the window to be able to clear up the fog. Lita looked at the goose bumps on her arms and her erect nipples and knew that she was on the colder side of the window. Suddenly Lita felt like just punching the window in. But what if Rei's grandpa was inside taking a shower? She'd be scarred for life. On the other hand, Rei and Chad could be in there doing stuff. It was a tough decision to make but she finally decided to try and open the window since the latch was in plain view opened and all she had to do was pull on the latch and let the window open itself. Her right hand went to reach the latch while her left arm was wrapped around her cold breasts and her thighs rubbed against each other. The latch was in her hand and she was slowly pulling the window towards her. She slowly looked inside... her eyes widened. She saw Rei on the sink, guiding Chad's hand into her pants. And Chad, breathing like a wild animal, kissing Rei's neck, working his way down to her chest slowly. Lita was shocked at Rei and she had every amount of courage ready to go back in the dojo, walk in the bathroom, catch them in the act, flip out on Rei for being a slut, and then just walking away. In her mind the plan was ready to be executed. With a small grunt she left the window and went back in the dojo, leaving her slippers at the door. She walked around in her socks towards the bathroom and stopped at the door. She took a deep breath and got ready to open the door. Her hand found its way to the door and she was ready to slide it open. *Beep Beep* Her Luna watch began to beep.  
  
"What's going on Luna?" she asked looking at the watch.  
  
"Lita! Gather the scouts! The Amazon quartet is up to no good! They are a few miles away as we speak, stealing heart crystals in the search for the pure heart!"  
  
"Ok, we'll be right there, I'll take the lead, you call the other scouts."  
  
"Lita, they are all fairly close to you."  
  
"Luna this is an emergency there is no time to waste!" With that she turned off her communicator and ran out the dojo. "Jupiter Crystal Power!" Her voice echoed through the windows of the house.  
  
"What's going on?" Mina wondered as she heard Lita's transformation cry.  
  
"I don't know but we have to help! Maybe something happened to Rei and Chad!" Serena yelled out loud, ready for action.  
  
Ami got up from the floor and dusted her shirt off. "Let's go guys!" She said with confidence.  
  
"Right!" Mina and Serena nodded as all three of them ran out of the dojo after Lita. Serena's watch beeped.  
  
"What's up Luna?" She asked as soon as she heard the beep.  
  
"Serena! There is trouble near! The Amazon quartet is up to no good. Follow Lita, I've sent her a map of the location via the communicator. Who else is with you?"  
  
"Mina and Ami are here beside me." She said as she panted, her legs moving faster and faster through the grass each time.  
  
"Were is Rei?"  
  
"Um, well, we don't know, she left a while ago."  
  
"Where to?" Luna asked agitated with fury.  
  
"I don't know, she was upset, and she stormed off, Chad followed her."  
  
"Doesn't matter! I'll contact her immediately!" Luna said as she signed off.  
  
"Luna wait!" Ami yelled into Serena's watch. "Crap!"  
  
"What's wrong?" Serena asked.  
  
"If Luna calls Rei on the communicator, and she is with Chad, then Chad will know our secret!"  
  
"Oh Ami." Serena said calmly. "Luna is smarter than that!"  
  
~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` ~`~`~` "Chad I love you." Rei said through large gasps of air.  
  
"I love you more than life itself Rei, I really do" was his reply.  
  
*Beep Beep*  
  
"What's that noise?" Chad asked.  
  
"I don't know." Said Rei nervously.  
  
"It's coming from your watch." He said as he grabbed her wrist and pressed a button on it, opening up a video hologram of Luna's face.  
  
"Rei! You must hurry and catch up with the other scouts. There are some people in great danger ... oh goodness ... Chad ... uh... meow?"  
  
"Holy shit did that cat just talk?" He yelled out, letting go of Rei's legs and back. She fell off the basin and hit the floor. "Oh sweetie I'm so sorry are you ok?"  
  
"Fine" she said as she got up from the floor. "Luna, forget it, he heard you talk and I'm not going to jeopardize my friends over a ridiculous secret. Now tell me what is happening!"  
  
"The Amazon quartet is attacking innocent people in its search for the pure heart crystal! You must join the other scouts and stop them!"  
  
"Ok, were are they now?"  
  
"About 5 blocks from your position, I'll send you the information." Luna said.  
  
"It talks." Chad said...wide-eyed in shock at the holographic Luna.  
  
"Ok Luna, I'm on my way." Rei said as she yelled "Mars Crystal Power" and transformed into Super Sailor Mars. With that she gave Chad a kiss on the cheek and ran out on her high heels to join the other sailor senshi.  
  
"Now as for you young man," Luna said to Chad who still had a semi. "Let's discuss how this should be kept as an utmost secret."  
  
"... ... ... It talks!" was his reply. 


	11. Battle for Life

"We are approaching the location Luna sent us." Ami said as she looked at the map on her communicator.  
  
"Look guys there's Lita!" Mina exclaimed at the sight of Lita demanding to know what was going on.  
  
"What is this?" Serena asked bedazzled as she looked to her surroundings. What used to be a normal sidewalk was now a red carpet of fallen human bodies. Floating three feet over the unconscious humans were dozens of heart crystals.  
  
"Stop right there!" Lita yelled out, causing the other scouts to turn their heads her way. She was looking straight at Ves Ves, one of the Amazon Quartet. The adorable villain just stood there, examining the heart crystal that was floating on the palm of her hand.  
  
"Hmm, this isn't it," she said as she tossed the heart crystal to the air, watching as it landed on a tree branch.  
  
"What are you doing? Stop that!" Serena demanded. Ves Ves simply moved on to the next crystal nearest to her and began to examine it as well. Jun Jun and Para Para exited a nearby store and ran towards Ves Ves.  
  
"Any luck?" She asked eagerly.  
  
"Nope, none! Para Para looked everywhere but she couldn't find anything!" The blue villain said.  
  
"Yea, all of the crystals in the store were normal ones. We are having really rotten luck." Jun Jun informed as she held her chin with her hand and looked up at the sky.  
  
"Well," Ves Ves concluded, "I guess there is no point in staying here then. We might as well go back."  
  
"Okay! Para Para wants to play!"  
  
"Hey wait!" Serena yelled enraged. "Where do you all think you are going? You can't just attack innocent people and expect to get away with it!"  
  
"Oh yea, who plans to stop us?" Jun Jun asked almost amused.  
  
"We do!" The scouts said in perfect unison.  
  
"We are the sailor scouts!" Ami yelled out.  
  
"Protectors of love..." Mina began.  
  
"... and justice!" Lita concluded.  
  
"And we will punish any one who disturbs the peace of this planet, and that means you!" Serena said as she got into her famous pointing pose.  
  
"Yes, how amusing." Ves Ves said as the other two Amazon members clapped their hands in mock of the scouts.  
  
"We appreciate your effortless acting but we have things to do, and watching you perform your stupid motto isn't one of them." Jun Jun announced with a cold look in her eyes.  
  
"That's right! Mizka take care of the scouts." Ves Ves ordered. Suddenly, the figure of a tall, slender woman appeared. Her face and body were covered in black and white, skin-tight fur, her eyes as yellow as an egg yolk. She had large fangs that protruded effortlessly out of her ebony black lips, and her hair was as black as her poisoned lips. It fell back over her shoulders and ended by her navel. The malicious look in her eyes was disturbing, even to the trio that was present.  
  
"Bye! Take care of Mizka!" Para Para snickered as her sisters drew a black hole in the air, jumped through, and offered their little sister some help by lending their hands. Seconds later, the villainous trio had disappeared.  
  
"Bwa! What's this?" Serena asked once she got a good look at her opponent.  
  
"I don't know but if looks could kill we'd be dead long ago." Ami said silently as she stared into the pupil-less yellow eyes.  
  
"Whatever it is, I can sense its strength!" Lita warned.  
  
"Right, let's do this scouts!" Serena yelled as confident as ever.  
  
"Sailor Mercury," Mina began, "try to run a scan on the monster and see if it has any weaknesses."  
  
"Good idea Sailor Venus!" Ami replied as she touched her blue stud earring. Her clear-blue visor appeared over her gentle eyes and she began to scan the monster. As soon as she did this, the monster attacked Sailor Venus. With one quick tackle of super-human strength, the monster managed to send the pretty soldier sailing through the air.  
  
"Venus!" Serena yelled as she ran to the spot where Mina laid, slowly sitting up and feeling her head.  
  
"I'm all right." Mina informed. "But this girl is no push-over so we have to be careful."  
  
"Right!" Serena said as she helped her friend off the concrete.  
  
"I found something guys!" Ami yelled out.  
  
"What is it?" Lita asked, not taking her eyes off the monster, who now had its arms crossed and was laughing at Mina's misfortune.  
  
"It isn't a weakness, but it can help you. It seems that her body parts aren't real. They are just a cover for what she truly has under her hideous skin."  
  
"And what would that be?" Serena asked at the point of whimper.  
  
"I can't tell. They seem to be some sort of vines." Ami replied as she double-checked her visor's information.  
  
"Vines? Where? I don't see any vines?" Lita questioned as she examined the monster.  
  
"Oh, you mean these vines?" The monster asked smirking.  
  
"Jupiter look out!" The scouts yelled in panic as the monster's fingernails ejected, flying straight for Lita's head. She evaded the attack with an agile jump and landed in front of Serena.  
  
"Don't worry guys, I can hold my own." Lita said, facing the other scouts and rubbing the back of her head as she playfully stuck out her tongue.  
  
"Speaking of hold..." Mizka yelled out. Vines exited her body from the hollow spaces were her nails had been. They swished through the air, and right as Lita was turning around, they grabbed her by the waist and engulfed her whole body. The vines muffled something out, but suddenly a bolt of lightning attacked Mizka and set Lita loose.  
  
"Sailor Jupiter!" Serena yelled out as her eyebrow twitched at the sight of her friend, lying semi-unconscious on the concrete sidewalk. Lita looked up at Serena, smiled, and finally collapsed, her arm muscles twitching as her face fell rapidly.  
  
"No!" Mina yelled. "Venus... love... chain ... encircle!" She yelled out as her radiant chain of love surrounded Mizka. "I've got her!" She jumped with excitement.  
  
"All right, let's finish her and rescue these poor people!" Serena yelled, as she got ready to vanish the monster once and for all.  
  
"WAIT!" Ami pleaded.  
  
"What's up Sailor Mercury?" Serena asked. Without warning, the monster broke through Mina's bondage and began to run towards her at full speed. Mina was hit by Mizka's shoulder and once again, was soaring through the air. Mizka wasted no time at all. She leaped up to where Mina was and engulfed her with her vines as she had done to Lita. The vines seemed to have sucked up all her power and when she was finally freed, she was laying not too far from Lita, in the same overall condition.  
  
"Sailor Moon get back!" a voice rang from a distance. Serena turned around to look and found Rei running to her aid.  
  
"Sailor Mars!" The scouts yelled with joy.  
  
"Sailor Mars," Ami began, "you are the only one that can save us. This hideous thing seems to have a weakness for fire. However, I don't think you have enough power to conjure the necessary strength to banish her."  
  
"Why not?" Serena asked.  
  
"This thing is strong, I can sense it." Mars interrupted. "I agree with Mercury, I can't take this down alone. But none of your powers will work against it, and I don't want to see you like Venus and Jupiter." She said as she looked over to her fallen companions. "I have to try!" She yelled with her usual stubborn determination.  
  
~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~` ~`  
  
"Now you know." Luna concluded her lesson to a much calmer Chad. "But you mustn't tell ANYONE of this. If you do, it could mean the end of the Sailor Scouts as we know it."  
  
"So, you are trying to tell me that the girl I love is from Venus?" Chad asked completely dumbfounded by the holographic cat.  
  
"Mars, actually." Luna smiled.  
  
"But I thought men where from Mars and women from Venus." Chad explained.  
  
"Yes well there is a very interesting thing about that theory. Well, you see..." Luna began and then abruptly stopped, a look of fear across her face.  
  
"What, what is it?" Chad began.  
  
"The girls! Something has happened to the girls!"  
  
"No, Rei!" Chad immediately rose from the floor.  
  
"I can't sense Mina and Lita with the other scouts. They are either dead or out of all power."  
  
"Is Rei all right?" He asked in full panic.  
  
"Yes, she is fine, for how long I cannot say. I feel her power increasing with each minute. Whatever it is that the scouts are facing is not pretty, and Rei seems determined to vanquish it. If she does, she will be just as drained as the other scouts, and in that stage, who knows what can happen to her?"  
  
"Then I have to help her!" Chad announced with high hopes.  
  
"What are you going to do? You are a mere human! Are you going to kill their enemy with a frying pan to the head?" Luna joked but with a mean face.  
  
"If that's what it takes to save Rei and the girls!" he yelled out as he ran out of the bathroom.  
  
"Wait!" Luna yelled. "Get back here, you don't even know where they are! If you don't take me along with you then you can't meet up with them."  
  
"That's right!" Chad said as he re-entered the bathroom, grabbed the watch and ran out once more. As they approached the door, the hologram disappeared. Chad began to bang the watch against the wall, hoping the image would return. "Stupid watch!"  
  
"Hey! I'm still here!" Luna's voice emerged from the watch.  
  
"Why did you leave?" Chad asked.  
  
"Well, would you rather half of Tokyo find out that there is a talking cat from the Moon Kingdom giving you directions over a holographic watch?" She yelled out with her usual furious face.  
  
"All right, don't yell Lana!"  
  
"My name is Luna!"  
  
"That's right Lana now let's go!" He said as he ran out of the dojo. He listened to each word the cat said through the watch, turning where instructed and following orders perfectly. His body began to sweat as he increased his running pace, hoping to cut the distance between him and Rei with each block he ran.  
  
"It's not far now! Turn here, proceed for two blocks and then turn right."  
  
"Ok." Chad said, almost out of breath.  
  
`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~ `~`~`  
  
"Sailor Mars, I'll shield you from her view. Her eyes seem to be extremely underdeveloped." Ami yelled.  
  
"Gee, what gave it away? Was it the disgusting yellow sclera? Or the pupil- less, zombie-like, gaze?" Serena questioned as she looked at Mizka with disgust.  
  
"Mercury, cover me!" Rei yelled as she began to harness her energy.  
  
"Right, Mercury bubbles blast!" She yelled out as a thick fog surrounded and shielded the scouts. A bush rustled faintly in the distance as Chad peeked out his head.  
  
"I can't see anything, the weather sucks tonight!" He said.  
  
"That's not regular fog," Luna whispered, "that is one of Ami's attacks."  
  
"I don't care what it is! How am I supposed to see what happens to Rei?"  
  
"Shh, not so loud! Do you want that thing coming over here?"  
  
"What thing?" He asked.  
  
"THAT thing to your far left." She said as he turned his head and his face turned white.  
  
"What is that thing?"  
  
"I don't know, but that thing is what knocked out Mina and Lita." Luna said as she reassembled herself in the hologram.  
  
"What are all these people doing here? And what are all those things floating above them?"  
  
"Never mind that, I'll explain later." There was a faint sound of bodies being dragged around.  
  
"Mercury," Serena began, "as soon as Venus wakes up from this I am putting her on a mandatory diet!" She declared as she slowly dragged Mina's limp body to a safe place behind a tree.  
  
"I know what you mean!" Ami said as she dragged Lita to the same spot. Rei just stood there, her hands in prayer mode, maximizing her attack power. Suddenly her eyes opened and she took in a deep breath.  
  
"She's ready." The scouts said.  
  
"I can't see anything!" Chad protested.  
  
"Oh goodness, clear your mind and focus on what you wish to see and you will be able to pierce through Ami's shield." She said with empty promises so he would shut up. She knew that his mortal vision had no way of breaking through Ami's powerful barrier. Despite this, Chad sat down, closed his eyes, and took a few deep breaths. When he opened them he gave a huge smile.  
  
"There they are!" He exclaimed.  
  
"Who?" Luna asked puzzled.  
  
"The scouts, there are Ami and Serena dragging Mina and Lita back to safety, and there is Rei who looks like she is about to do something."  
  
"What?! You can see all that?" Luna questioned as she looked to the scouts and then back at Chad.  
  
"Yea, of course, I did what you told me to and it worked!"  
  
(This can't be. Something is extremely fishy here. It is impossible for Chad to be able to see the scouts, unless he himself is in some way tied to them.)  
  
"Look there goes Rei!" Chad announced. Surely enough, the fog began to lift and Rei began to walk slowly towards the beast ahead of her.  
  
"Be careful Sailor Mars!" Serena yelled out as she frowned, fearing for her friend.  
  
"I'll do my best Sailor Moon." She said with a warm smile.  
  
"I hope she can handle this." Ami said under her breath.  
  
"Mars Flame Sniper!" Rei yelled out as all her energy began to lift from her body in the form of a red cloud. Then, as if by magic, it focused itself into the palm of her left hand, shaping itself into a fiery bow, a flaming arrow accompanied it. With a quick but powerful snap of her wrists, the arrow was cutting through the cool night air and piercing the monster's chest. The arrow implanted itself right between the abomination's fuzzy breasts.  
  
"All right Sailor Mars!" Serena congratulated as she watched the monster go down on her knees, and a ball of flame begin to hungrily devour her feet, working its way up slowly. Rei just stood there, the bow still in her hand, her forehead with a mist of sweat, her eyes slowly closing. Her bow disappeared like the flame of a dying candle in a rough wind, and her legs began to quiver and give way under her. Serena ran as quickly as she could to catch her heroic friend. Rei collapsed into Serena's arms. Her eyes fighting to stay open, while Serena's fought to hold back tears. "It's all right Mars, take a rest, everything is over." Serena said as she held Rei close to her chest.  
  
"I did my best." She said, trying to summon some energy from her body.  
  
"And your best was enough." Serena said in tears.  
  
"Not quite!" Ami exclaimed with a look of fear in her eyes. Her visor was pointing something out.  
  
"What is it Mercury?" Serena asked in panic.  
  
"Just as I feared, Sailor Mars' power wasn't enough. The power of the flame is eating the monster slowly. Even now, the flame is only up to her knees. She has a good two minutes before she goes out, and those two minutes could mean death to us all!"  
  
"That's right kiddies!" Mizka snickered as she began to extend her long arms past the flaming arrow still burning in her chest. Her fingers spread out and the scouts predicted another vine attack.  
  
"Sailor Moon look out!" Ami yelled at the top of her lungs.  
  
"I won't leave my friend to die!" She said with her never-ending determination. "This has gone far enough. I won't let you hurt my friend!" She yelled her words with such passion that tears began to flow from her eyes at a rapid pace. Each tear that left her eyes met another tear that floated in front of her chest. After a good five tears she had a small, clear moon at her bosom. "You have no respect for friendship or for people, and hideous things like you should not exist in our loving world!" The clear moon rose to her forehead and went inside her tiara. A white light of purity surrounded her and Sailor Mars. Mizka's deadly vines shot from her fingers and headed straight for Sailor Moon. "I won't let you win!" She yelled out, as the light grew brighter than ever. They were equally matched. Mizka's attack wouldn't penetrate Serena's shield, and Serena couldn't find enough strength to attack. Her mind was focused on saving her friends.  
  
"Just watch me!" The hideous monster said as more vines exited through her lips. A bolt of yellow energy surrounded her oral vines.  
  
"Sailor Moon, she is using Sailor Venus' and Jupiter's powers against you!" Ami yelled from a distance, closing her visor and getting ready to attack once more.  
  
"What's this?" Mizka asked.  
  
"Shine... Aqua ... Illu..." Mercury began her spell, but before she was through, one of the vibrant vines had tied her up and sucked all her energy. Once unwrapped, she lay as limp as the rest. It was all up to Serena now.  
  
"What have you done?" She yelled out as she watched Mizka dish out Ami's pain. "You can't get away with that!"  
  
"Well, a non-believer. I guess I'll just have to put a little faith in you now won't I?" Mizka said with her malicious, fang-filled grin. Once more, vines left her mouth and wrapped themselves around Serena's pure energy. They seemed to bind themselves like a python, trying to squeeze the life out of the pretty soldier's lunar shield.  
  
"I can't hold on anymore!" Serena spoke through choking tears. "Lita, Mina, Ami, Rei," she said as she looked to each of her friends, "I'm sorry."  
  
"It was about time your luck ran out!" Mizka yelled as her vines penetrated the shield and hit Serena's left arm, leaving her bleeding. Her high- pitched scream filled the night sky and it opened Rei's eyes long enough to watch her fall in pain.  
  
"Serena?" She said groggily. "What's..." she began as she slowly turned her head towards Mizka whose body had been consumed by her flame up to her waist already.  
  
"And now, to finish you off. It's such a shame to have to do this, you are so pretty, just like your blonde friend over there." She pointed at Mina. "But now you must go as well, I don't have much time so I'll make it short and bitter-sweet."  
  
"Serena ..." Rei said as she shook her leader's arm in hope that she'd wake up. Her attempts were futile and her energy was nearly all gone. The monster began to open her mouth and the vines were already peeking out like worms through a corpse.  
  
"Say good bye to life Sailor Mars." She said as her attack drew near.  
  
"No!" A voice emerged from the bushes. "I won't let her die!" Chad ran out in tears and stood between the monster and his beloved soldier. "I won't let Rei and the other scouts die!" His scream pierced through the heavens and went beyond the planet itself. The communicator was on his wrist, and the energy that now formed around him had left the watch shattered to pieces. He kissed Rei's forehead and stared into her groggy eyes. She gave him a weak smile, and pet his delicate face.  
  
"At least we die together." She said with a weak voice.  
  
"You think I'm gonna let a freak of nature stand between us? It's going to take a lot more than that to separate me from you Rei." He said as he closed his eyes and focused the cloud of energy around him. He cradled Rei in his arms as his body, holding hers, rose to the air. His body was now nude and a pair of red, fiery wings emerged from his back. The wings were so large that they covered both their bodies, and when they finally withdrew into his back, he was left in a black and red battle suit, much like a knight's. Rei's sailor scout outfit was gone, and she now lay in a fiery red dress that reached her ankles. There was a black chain on her ankle, and it held the symbol of Mars. The same symbol and chain were in the form of a choker around her milk-white neck. And a red tiara with onyx stones lay gently on her head. Chad's feet returned to the ground, and he still cradled Rei's soft, limp body in his strong arms. "I'll be back soon my love." He whispered in her ear as he kissed her lips and gently laid her on the floor.  
  
"Chad ... what's going on ... I don't understand." She said as she saw his blurry figure stand over her.  
  
"I don't have the answers, at least not now. I'll come back to you soon my love." With that, a burning flame came from his right hand. He gripped it and it formed itself into a deadly sword. He ran as fast as he could, his love and his rage all flowing through his body and exiting onto his valiant sword. He slashed Mizka's black and white body and he watched as the flame from his sword devoured every inch of her, even as her yellow eyes blended perfectly with the everlasting flame. His outfit soon returned to the red fog, and he was once again nude under his wings. When they opened he was in his regular outfit and the wings themselves melted and rose to the red fog above his head. He ran to Rei, who was once again Sailor Mars as her own dress melted and returned to its floating origin. He bent down to her level, lifted her head, and kissed her forehead. At that moment the fog diffused through the night street and all the heart crystals swished through the air and found themselves to their owners. The people began to twitch on the ground, and not soon after, the scouts were rising as well. Every one was puzzled as they rose from the ground and the red fog vanished, leaving them all with unanswered questions. The scouts surrounded Rei and Chad, staring like mindless idiots and feeling their bodies for any pain. Serena got up and ran towards her friends to make sure they were all right, in her race she forgot to notice her arm didn't even bother her.  
  
"What happened here?" Ami asked. "Did you do this Sailor Moon?"  
  
"No, it wasn't me, at least I don't think so." She answered honestly.  
  
"What's going on here?" Mina asked.  
  
"Yea, and what is Chad doing here?" Lita questioned, now more confused than ever. They all stared as Chad kissed Rei's forehead with no pause, and as tears swelled up in his eyes when he saw her slowly get off the ground herself. His world was spinning again.  
  
"Chad? What did you do?" She asked as she sat up with a fair amount of energy in her body.  
  
"You're all right, that's all that matters." He said as his body fell to the ground.  
  
"Chad!" The scouts all yelled as they gathered their bits of energy and went to him.  
  
"What happened here?" The civilians began to ask as they too walked over to Chad to see if he was all right.  
  
"Chad?" Rei's voice echoed in his head as he saw blurry faces, some familiar, some strange, crowd over him as he eventually passed out. 


	12. Secretive Ami

"Sailor Mars calm down!"  
  
"What are we going to do Sailor Moon?" she asked frantically.  
  
"I don't know, Mercury, what do you suggest?"  
  
"Do you think we can drag him to my house? It's only 10 blocks away." She gave an uneasy smile.  
  
"Ten blocks?" Lita asked. "We can't carry him for ten blocks."  
  
"We can teleport!" Serena announced.  
  
"I don't know if we have the power to do that," Ami announced with regret.  
  
"What if we don't all teleport?" Mina asked.  
  
"We need the power of all five scouts in order to teleport anywhere, so we can't just choose a scout and teleport her because we need that scout's power in order to start the sequence." Rei added.  
  
"No, wait, I think I know what she means." Ami said as she pressed her earring and her visor appeared. "Guys, huddle together, I want to see something." They did as told and Ami ran a quick scan on the scouts. "Ok, it can be done."  
  
"What can be done?" Serena asked.  
  
"I understand what Venus is trying to say. If we all position ourselves around Chad, we can use our powers to teleport him back to my apartment without us actually transporting anywhere. According to my scanner, we have more than enough power to do so. Think about it, dragging him would not be very wise. Many people have seen us already, and if we de-transform and carry him around, they will recognize him, thus revealing our identities. This is our best bet if we want to move Chad to safety without jeopardizing our secrecy. Now, do we all agree on this?"  
  
"Yes, I'm in!" Serena said with confidence and a closed fist of determination.  
  
"Wait," Rei interrupted as she put her hand on Serena's shoulder and moved in front of her. "Mercury is this safe?"  
  
"Of course it is, I would not suggest it if it weren't."  
  
"Perfect, then there's no reason to hold back." Lita said as she positioned herself around Chad and spread her arms out, waiting for the other scouts to join her.  
  
"Right!" Serena exclaimed as she took her place.  
  
"For Chad." Rei said as she formed the link between Lita and Serena. Mina and Ami looked at each other, nodded as seriously as ever, and took their places as well. They closed their eyes and focused their energies. Time slowed down, and the bystanders seemed to be still, breathless, unaware of what was happening. It was as if the scouts were in their own dimension.  
  
"Mars planet power!" Rei shouted as her body shone with crimson energy.  
  
"Jupiter planet power!" Lita bellowed as her body gave off rays of emerald energy.  
  
"Mercury planet power!" Ami yelled as she gave up her icy aura-like energy.  
  
"Venus planet power!" Mina shouted as her ginger-colored energy joined the rest over Chad's body.  
  
"Moon cosmic power!" Serena screamed, releasing her bright pink energy that wrapped itself around Chad, blanketing the other scouts' energies. Chad's body was engulfed in a rainbow of energy.  
  
"Sailor Planet Power Teleport!" They all shouted in unison as the energy surrounding Chad got brighter and shone farther, hiding his body from view until it eventually disappeared and the energy dispersed into the air. Time sped up again and the people surrounding the scouts looked confused as to what had happened.  
  
"Where did that young boy go?" An old woman pondered.  
  
"He just disappeared into thin air!" Another woman exclaimed.  
  
"He was there a second ago, I swear I saw him!" A man in a gray suit yelled out as he looked around for Chad's body.  
  
"This is our chance." Lita announced as she and the other scouts slowly slipped into the darkness of the night.  
  
"Hey!" The man in the suit stopped and looked around. "Where are all those girls in the sailor uniforms and the short skirts?" The crowd stopped looking for Chad and turned their attention to the missing scouts. "They were there a second ago! I swear I saw them!" The man exclaimed as he panicked and ripped out a chunk of his hair and began to tear of frustration.  
  
"Ok, I think we are safe now." Mina said as she scoped the area for any wandering eyes.  
  
"Let's change." Rei said as she began to power down.  
  
"Yes!" Serena agreed.  
  
"Oh no wait!" Ami cautioned but it was too late.  
  
"WHAT?" Serena whined. "This is so unfair!"  
  
"Totally! What's going on?" Lita asked as she looked down at herself and found herself in her underwear and a tank top.  
  
"Guys I'm so embarrassed! I can't walk another step like this!" Mina yelled as she blushed.  
  
"Ha! I'm glad I wore these sweats!" Rei said contently. The other scouts all looked at her with envy.  
  
"What are we going to do now?" Lita asked as she pulled her underwear up a bit and scratched her leg.  
  
"Well," Serena began, "we could just pretend we are going to the beach and that we are wearing a shirt on top of our bikinis."  
  
"Great idea Serena!" Mina yelled out.  
  
"Ready scouts?" Ami smiled, still in scout form. "Let's walk!" Ami and Rei took the lead and talked about what a great 'costume' Ami was wearing. Lita walked proudly, as usual, with her arms folded behind her neck as she looked around her at the other people, when suddenly, it hit her.  
  
"SERENA YOU MEATBALL HEAD!" The scouts all yelled out. "What are we doing going to the beach in the middle of the night?"  
  
"Oh, that's right, I forgot about that!" She replied in her usual, cheery voice.  
  
"What are we going to do now Ami?" Mina asked.  
  
"May I suggest we run and don't turn back?"  
  
"Right!" They all said as they frantically ran down the street and split up in the nearest intersection in an attempt to attract less attention. Ami and Rei paired off while the rest of the girls went their own way.  
  
"Hey Rei, what happened back there with Chad?" Ami asked concerned. "I don't know Ami, but I felt his energy rise all of a sudden, and after that everything is a blur."  
  
"Do you think Chad beat that monster?" She asked.  
  
"Oh, I'm sure of it! Serena was badly hurt when I last checked, and then the next thing I know Chad is standing over me with this weird cloud of energy around him."  
  
"That is weird..." Ami said as they ran faster down the empty streets of their city.  
  
"Hey look Kanko!" A man yelled out from a corner. His friend turned his head to stare at the passing girls. "It's our lucky day! Look at that girl in the gray sweats."  
  
"Yea what about her?" the friend replied.  
  
"Look at the way her tits bounce when she runs!" He pointed out.  
  
"Shit you're right, look at them bounce, and her shirt is a little bit wet too!" He said as he winked and traced some breasts in the air with his fingers. "I'd love to get my hands on those beauties!"  
  
"Yea, her friend's pretty hot too!" The first man said.  
  
"Yea look at her. That's a nice skirt she's wearing." Kanko smirked.  
  
"A very nice skirt indeed, I wonder if it's easy to take off."  
  
"Wanna find out?" He said as he smirked again.  
  
"I don't know, they look pretty young to me."  
  
"That didn't stop you from checking out the sweat girl's rack," Kanko announced.  
  
"Look, it's a nice rack. But that doesn't mean I'm gonna get in trouble over it!" His friend stated.  
  
"Come on man, looking is okay, and touching can't get us in trouble."  
  
"Forget you Kanko!" The friend said. "You're nothing but a pervert."  
  
"Hey asshole, you pointed them out!"  
  
"Fuck you man!" The first guy said as he entered a near by store to but some cigarettes.  
  
"...He could have gotten one from me, that idiot." Kanko said as he blew out the smoke in his lungs, threw his cigarette butt on the ground, and stepped on it. The girls were getting nearer to him now, and they were getting tired and slowing their pace.  
  
"Rei I can't go on anymore! I have to stop for a breath!" Ami pleaded.  
  
"It's all right, we'll stop for a few minutes, I'm sure Serena has a leg cramp by now!" She announced with a smile. "I'll go get you something to drink from that store, wait for me outside all right?"  
  
"All right, don't take long." Ami said as she walked over and leaned against the wall next to Kanko as Rei entered the store.  
  
"Hey there," he greeted her.  
  
"Hello," Ami replied with her head bowed, trying not to make eye contact.  
  
"What are you all dressed up for? Are you going to a costume party or something?"  
  
"Yes, something like that." She looked to the opposite direction and tried to hint she was not interested in conversing.  
  
"So," he lit another cigarette and drew in a breath of smoke, "what kind of costume party is it?"  
  
"I don't know, the usual I'm assuming."  
  
"That's a nice skirt you got there." He smirked. "It's a very nice color, matches your pretty little eyes." He said as he ran his fingers down the material of the skirt.  
  
"Please don't do that." Ami said shaking with fear.  
  
"Do what honey?" He said as he moved his hand from the material of the skirt and placed it on her outer thigh.  
  
"Please, don't..." She said as she tried to move his hand.  
  
"Look," he removed the cigarette out of his mouth, exhaled, and threw it on the floor. "...you know you want this just as much as I do." He smiled as he moved his hand deeper up her thigh and more towards the middle.  
  
"My friend will be here any second now." She said as her breath quickened.  
  
"Good...maybe she can join." He said as he slid his hand into her underwear and entered her young, moist vagina.  
  
"Hey excuse me!" Rei shouted over the empty counter. "Can I get some help here!" silence "Ah forget it!" She said as she walked around the store in her sweats.  
  
"Need any help?" a voice came from the junk food isle.  
  
"Yea, I'm looking for something to drink."  
  
"Next one over," he said as he moved his head to the direction she should go.  
  
"Thanks." She said as she bowed her head and went to the next isle. "What can I get Ami?"  
  
"Maybe a fruit juice." The same voice asked.  
  
"What's going on? Where'd you come from? Weren't you in the other isle?"  
  
Smirk "I have feet you know."  
  
"Right!" She said feeling stupid.  
  
"So, you're buying a drink for your friend huh?" He asked.  
  
"That's right."  
  
"Is she the one in the weird costume outside?" He started laughing.  
  
"Yes, that's her." Rei smiled.  
  
"She looks sweet, here, get her a fruit nectar."  
  
"Thanks, that's a good idea." She picked up the can from the fridge and began to walk towards the counter. "Hey," she said as she turned back, "do you know where the cashier is?"  
  
"No I don't. I've been here a while waiting to pay for my cigarettes but there's no one here but us."  
  
"Oh, then what do you think I should do?" She asked.  
  
"Leave the money by the register, that's what I did."  
  
"Guess I'll have to do the same eh?" She smiled and left the change by the register. "Thanks, see you around." She said as she headed towards the exit. (Wow that took me a while, I hope Ami is all right out there.)  
  
"Bye" said the lonely guy, still smoking his cigarette, standing by the juice section. Rei exited the store and looked around her for Ami.  
  
"There you are!" she said as she saw Ami, leaning back against the wall, her hair a bit messed up.  
  
"Oh, hi, what took you so long?" she said with a sweet smile.  
  
"I couldn't find the drinks and then I couldn't find the cashier."  
  
"Oh is that so?" She said as she stared at the night sky, not looking Rei in the eye.  
  
"Are you all right Ami?" Rei asked concerned, Ami didn't seem herself.  
  
"Fine..." She replied. A figure stood up from the floor next to her.  
  
"Who's that Ami? A friend of yours?" Rei questioned.  
  
"Yes, his name is Kanko. Kanko this is Rei, my friend I was telling you about."  
  
"Hello there Rei, it's a pleasure to meet you." He said as he shook her hand.  
  
"Ami here's your juice." She said as she handed Ami the drink.  
  
"Thanks." She opened it and took a sip. "You want some?" she asked Kanko.  
  
"No, if had enough nectar for one night." smirk  
  
"...I agree." She said as she continued drinking.  
  
"So, how well do you know each other?" Rei asked Kanko.  
  
"Well, I guess you could say I know her better inside than out."  
  
"Yea, Ami is quite secretive." Rei smiled.  
  
"Yes, that she is Rei." Kanko laughed.  
  
"Don't you have to be leaving now?" Ami asked Kanko.  
  
"That's right, my friend is waiting for me inside. So I'll let you ladies go." He said as he gave Ami a kiss on the cheek, waved to Rei and went inside the store.  
  
"What a nice guy huh Ami?" Rei chuckled.  
  
"Yes, he's very good." She replied in a low voice. "Come on, we have to get going, we still have to meet the girls at my place."  
  
"Right, I almost forgot, I get sidetracked so easily!" Rei said as she began speed walking towards Ami's house. "Hey, you coming?" She asked.  
  
"...Almost," she said as she threw out the empty can and walked side by side with Rei.  
  
"Are you sure you're all right? You seem different since I left you outside, did anything happen?"  
  
"Nothing out of the ordinary." She said as she reached her building and opened the main door to the lobby.  
  
Sneeze "Bless you." Ami said.  
  
"Thanks." Rei said as she rubbed her nose with her pointer. "Ugh!" she said with disgust.  
  
"What is it?" Ami asked.  
  
"That friend of yours. What the hell was on his hands?!"  
  
"What do you mean?" she asked as she pressed the button on the elevator.  
  
"...When he shook my hand...my hand smells weird."  
  
"Really? Let me smell?" Ami said as she shoved her hand in her face.  
  
"Hmm...that's normal for all the guys I meet." Ami said with a disappointed face.  
  
"What do you mean by that?" Rei asked confused. "What is that smell?"  
  
"Elevator stopped...we're here." Ami said as she exited the elevator, walked to her apartment, and saw the other girls sitting on the entrance.  
  
"What took you so long guys?" Lita asked.  
  
"Yea! People have been looking at us strangely for a good 20 minutes!" Mina complained.  
  
"Where the heck have you guys been?" Serena whined.  
  
"Just getting something to drink Serena relax." Rei said in her cranky manner.  
  
"Yes, relax." Ami said as she opened the door to her apartment and all the girls rushed in.  
  
"Chad!" Rei exclaimed as she walked in the bedroom and found Chad lying on Ami's bed, semi-conscious.  
  
"Is he all right?" Lita yelled from the kitchen as she stuck her head in Ami's fridge.  
  
"He's all right!" Serena shouted as she watched Chad slowly open his eyes and look around the room.  
  
"Ami! You all right over there?" Mina yelled from the room.  
  
"I'm fine." Ami said in a low voice as she powered down into her tank top and blue underwear. She looked down on herself, and saw a wet mark in front of her underwear. She pulled her tank top as low as she could but could not cover the milky stain. "I'm fine." She said as she closed the door. 


	13. Awaited Passion

"Rei?" Chad asked as he touched his forehead and slowly opened his eyes.  
  
"He's awake guys!" Lita announced.  
  
"Oh coming coming!" Serena yelped as she ran into the room, hands full of cream puffs.  
  
"Jeez Serena do you ever stop stuffing your face?" Rei asked as she kissed Chad's hand, which she had been holding for quite some time now.  
  
"Well I can't eat when I'm sleeping can I?" Serena joked.  
  
"Actually," Mina began as she walked in the room, "there are people that sleep-talk, others that sleep-walk, and then there is you Serena, who sleep- eats." The group gave a small chuckle, Serena included.  
  
"Hey guys where's Ami?" Serena asked as she looked around the room.  
  
"She's in the bathroom," Mina replied, "she's been there for quite some time now."  
  
"Maybe she has a stomach ache!" Serena concluded  
  
"She's not a pig like you Serena, all she did was have a drink." Rei replied  
  
"Well I'm going to check up on her." Lita said as she sat up from the bed and walked over to the bathroom. She could hear the girls mumbling in the bedroom and could even make out the sounds of weight shifting on the bed as all the girls sat closer to Chad, who was now opening his eyes and orienting himself.  
  
Knock knock  
  
"Hey Ami, you ok in there?"  
  
"Oh I'm fine Lita," replied a startled Ami "I'll be out in a second"  
  
"What are ya doing in there that's taking so long?" Lita asked with a laugh  
  
"Nothing, I just had a slight stomach disturbance." Ami replied  
  
"Oh, all right, well Chad is feeling better so you should come to the bedroom when you're done." She said as she put her arms on the small of her back and walked back into the bedroom.  
  
"Yes, I will be right there!" Ami shouted into the vastness of her hall. "All right now, compose yourself." She sat up from the toilet lid, looked at herself in the mirror, and walked out of the bathroom and into the kitchen. "Hey Ami!" Serena yelled as she jumped off the bed and ran into the kitchen after Ami.  
  
"Yes Serena?"  
  
"What are you doing in here? Chad's in the bedroom!" She said with a nervous voice  
  
"Oh I am looking for these delicious cream puffs I bought not too long ago so that I may share them with you all. After everything we've been through tonight I think we deserve a midnight snack." Ami said with her usual, sweet smile.  
  
"Oh Ami! Don't be silly!" Serena said as she gave Ami a firm pat on the back that almost knocked her over. "It's too late to be eating cream puffs! Do you want us all to get fat?" She giggled nervously  
  
"Serena, since when do you watch your weight?" Ami questioned suspiciously  
  
"Oh well, I've gained a few pounds here and there and I am watching my figure." She said as she put her hands on her head and turned around slowly, seductively.  
  
"Oh Serena," Ami giggled. She proceeded to open the door to her refrigerator only to find it empty. The only thing left was a pack of water bottles, some steamed vegetables in tupperware, and a half-eaten slice of melon. Ami's eyes drew blank and she lowered her head with a sigh.  
  
"Hehe," Serena laughed uneasily, "I think I better get back to the room now," she said as she made a B-line for the room.  
  
"Serena, what am I going to do with you?" Ami smiled as she closed the door and headed to the bedroom.  
  
"Hey Ami welcome back!" Mina greeted.  
  
"Ami," Rei looked concerned, "what happened to you?"  
  
"That fruit nectar really did a number on my stomach. I guess I shouldn't be eating or drinking this late at night." She answered.  
  
Chad began to sit up and hold his head.  
  
"Chad are you all right?" Ami asked as she moved in closer to the bed.  
  
"Oh Ami I've got a splitting headache!" Chad said as he moved his hands to his face.  
  
"Let me get you something for that!" Ami said as she ran out of the room to find an anelgesic. "Oh man I feel like crap!" Chad exclaimed as he moved his hands from his face and looked over to Rei who was sitting on the bed next to him. "Rei!" He exclaimed as he ran over and hugged her as tightly as he could. "Rei are you all right?!"  
  
"I'm fine Chad," she said as she buried her head into his neck.  
  
"Hey Chad," Serena asked in a serious voice, "what happened back there in the battle? Did you save us?"  
  
"I can't tell Serena." Chad said as he let go of Rei and looked deep into Serena's eyes. "All I know is that I saw you go down, and I saw that thing go after Rei, and I couldn't let that thing attack Rei. I can't tell you exactly what happened because I don't even know, but I do know that I got some weird power. I have no clue what it was or how I got it, but whatever that power was, I used it to defend Rei. Once I knew she was safe again the power just left me and I felt drained."  
  
"That is so weird!" Serena exclaimed. "Wait, Chad, how did you know where to find us?"  
  
"Well, your talking cat guided me to Rei."  
  
"Luna? Where is she? Was she with you at the battle?" Serena asked concerned  
  
"Yes she was," Chad answered groggily, "we were hiding behind some bushes or something and then as soon as I headed into battle the communicator watch stopped working."  
  
"So you just had the watch then? She wasn't there with you?"  
  
"Uh no, I just took Rei's communicator and used it to find you guys." Chad answered confused.  
  
"Good." Ami said as she re-entered the room with some medication. "Then we can still contact her." She handed Chad the pills and a glass of water. "The vial says that it should be taken with milk but, well, my fridge has been raided." The group looked at Serena.  
  
"Fine, I'll go buy some milk! But I need clothes, I can't go out like this!" She whined.  
  
"Serena, over there in my closet I have a pair of pants that I believe fit you." Ami pointed as Serena walked over to the closet and looked around.  
  
"These green ones?"  
  
"Yes, those." Ami replied.  
  
"All right guys, I'll be back in a flash with milk!" Serena said as she rushed into the bathroom to put the pants on.  
  
"Well then, let's try to contact Luna shall we?" Ami asked. The girls nodded in approval as Ami began to push buttons on her communicator. "Luna? Are you there?" Ami asked into the communicator. "Luna? ... ... nothing guys"  
  
"Well, Mine won't work at all!" Mina exclaimed. "It's totaled!"  
  
"Mine too," Lita exclaimed as she looked at her watch and compared it to Mina's, "I guess flying in the air and being electrocuted will do that to you." She smiled.  
  
"Guys I think mine works!" All heads turned to Rei. "Oh wait, never mind, I just remembered Chad thrashed it."  
  
"Um sorry?" Chad smiled A door slam was heard, Serena was out of the bathroom and getting ready to leave. "Oh damn that really does make the headache worse!"  
  
"Serena!" Rei yelled out.  
  
"Oh crap Rei thanks for making it better!" Chad said as he held his head in his hands once more  
  
"Sorry Chad!" She apologized as she kissed his head  
  
"What is it guys?" Serena asked  
  
"Serena give me your watch" Lita extended her hand  
  
"Um sure, you guys still trying to contact Luna?" She asked as she threw the watch over to Lita  
  
"Yea, no luck so far though." Mina said  
  
"Well keep trying, I'll be back with the milk" She said as she ran out the door and slammed it  
  
"OH DAMMIT!" Chad moaned in pain.  
  
"Sorry!" Serena yelled from the hall as she pushed the button to call the elevator  
  
"Damn her!" Chad exclaimed  
  
"Shh..." Ami said as Mina tried to work the watch. All the girls leaned in with suspense. "Any luck?"  
  
"No" She replied with disappointment  
  
"WAIT!" Rei exclaimed. "Ami, do you still have your mini-computer on you?"  
  
"Yes I do, why?" Ami asked. "... I see ... Rei you're right!" She said as she withdrew her mini-computer and pressed a few buttons. Soon, the image of Luna appeared on the screen.  
  
"LUNA!" The girls squealed with joy, making Chad fall back on the bed and hit his head on the headboard.  
  
"Scouts! There you are! Finally! I lost track of you! After the communicator broke I couldn't track you down anymore. When I got it to work again on my end, it broke on Chad's end. And then you all powered down and I couldn't even feel you anymore I was so worried! Are you all alright?"  
  
"We are fine Luna." Ami said calmly  
  
"... and Chad, how is he? He did something pretty stupid! Who does he think he is trying to save the world with no powers?"  
  
"Well," Lita began, "I'm not so sure about that last one there Luna. He did something pretty extraordinary Luna, we don't know how, and he doesn't know either, but he saved us all."  
  
"Yea, and I'm pretty sure he did it using the power of Mars." Rei spoke as she moved closer to the communicator so Luna could see her face.  
  
"What? You didn't tell us this?" Mina questioned as she looked over to Rei  
  
"Look, I don't know how I know, but I'm very sure that he used the power of Mars. How it is possible I have no idea, but I know what I felt. And I felt the power of the red planet all around me."  
  
"Hmm...maybe he took some of your powers since you have such a strong bond." Luna pondered. Rei blushed.  
  
"No, I had no power left, I was almost powering down from my scout uniform. The power he used was his own, I know it."  
  
"Very well then, where are you girls, I shall be right over!" Luna exclaimed  
  
"We are all at my house," Ami said as she took the computer back from Rei  
  
"All right, I shall gather Artemis and be right over." The connection ended and the screen went black.  
  
"Well, at least she knows where we are." Ami said with a smile  
  
"Yea, now all we have to do is wait for Serena to get back," Lita said as she lay on the bed next to Chad, who by now had a huge bump on his head  
  
"I think I need some sleep," Mina said as she yawned and plopped on Chad's other side  
  
"Hey! Leave some room for me!" Rei yelled out in anger.  
  
"Well, it is MY bed and I don't even have room in it for me!" Ami spoke out  
  
"I'm back!" A singsong voice spoke out  
  
"... Thank heavens" Chad said as he sat up, took the milk from Serena's hands, and drank the medication  
  
"Guys I'm so tired!" Serena whined as she slumped over on Ami's couch  
  
"Oh great, now Serena has a bed too!" Rei groaned.  
  
"Wait, Serena, open up the couch, there is room for one more in there!" Ami yelled  
  
"Oh man," She said as she lazily got up and opened the sofa bed.  
  
"I'll sleep with you!" Mina yelled as she jumped off the bed and darted over to the sofa bed with Serena Ami and Rei looked at each other.  
  
"Go ahead, it's your bed." She said to Ami  
  
"Well, it's your boyfriend." She smiled  
  
"That's right!" Chad said  
  
"...He's not... ... fine ... thank you... but where are you going to sleep?" Rei asked concerned  
  
"Don't worry, I have an incredibly comfortable inflatable bed that easily fits 2 people." She said as she began to dig in her closet  
  
"Did you say inflatable bed?" Lita sat up from the bed.  
  
"Uh, yes Lita." Ami said as she sweat dropped  
  
"Oh, man I'm on it, I love those things! I hope you don't mind." She said as she helped Ami get the bed out  
  
"No, not at all!" She replied as she took out the instruction booklet and walked out of the room with Lita  
  
"'Night guys!" Lita said as she left the room  
  
"Goodnight!" Chad and Rei both replied as the bedroom door shut behind them  
  
"Well then, finally, some peace and QUIET!" Chad exclaimed almost in tears as Rei got up and shut off the lights to the room and lay down beside him  
  
"Chad what happened back there in the battle?" She asked as she laid her head on his chest.  
  
"I have no clue Rei, but whatever it was, it saved you, and that's all that matters to me." He replied as he kissed her hair.  
  
"Oh Chad I was so worried!" She said as she began to silently sob.  
  
"Hey," he said as he lifted her head from his chest, "don't cry, I'm all right." He wiped a tear with his thumb. "I'm all right now, no need to cry." He smiled and she moved up closer to his head and laid her head by his neck.  
  
"I love you Chad," she said as she stared at his neck.  
  
"I love you so much Rei," he replied as he moved over on his side so that their eyes could meet. "I was so scared that thing was going to kill you."  
  
"And I was so scared that you'd never wake up." She moved closer to him until their bodies were touching and their eyes were locked.  
  
"How did I get here Rei?" He asked  
  
"We teleported you, see Chad, the girls and I... we are..."  
  
"I know," he interrupted. "I know everything Rei, Lana explained it to me."  
  
"...Luna..."  
  
"Whatever," He showed her his goofy smile  
  
"So, you know who I am then."  
  
"Yea, dude you're an alien!" he said with a smirk  
  
"I am no alien!" She yelled out.  
  
"Take it easy," he said as he kissed her lips softly. "I know who you are and why you are here."  
  
"Does it change anything between..."  
  
"How can you even ask that Rei?" He asked her, a bit upset.  
  
"I'm sorry Chad, but not many people would want to be close to a Martian." She frowned.  
  
"Umm... do you have any antennae?" He asked joking  
  
"No, but I do have a pretty little tail!" She joked back  
  
"Ah, that you do!" He said as he put his left hand on her behind and rubbed it lightly. She smiled and kissed him.  
  
"So... it doesn't bother you that I'm from another planet?"  
  
"Pft! If all the girls in Mars are like you I might as well move over there!" He joked. She smiled weakly. "What, you're not gonna get mad?" He smirked  
  
"No, I've learned to live with your stupid jokes."  
  
"Oh, have you now?" He asked as he rolled over on top of her, let her hair fall off the edge of the bed, and began to kiss her gently. "Wow Rei, if only you could see how beautiful you look right now."  
  
"You're just saying that because the lights are turned off and you can't see anything." She laughed.  
  
"That's not funny, you really are beautiful Rei, and you should start to believe it." He said as he traced her face with his hand.  
  
"I know, I believe you." She said as she moved up slightly to kiss him. Her lips felt so soft to him, and the kiss felt so new, almost as if it was his first kiss. The moment was so perfect, the night was just right, and they were all alone, everyone else was away in the living room and they knew better than to disturb them now. He knew this and so did she, and she, without him knowing, planned to take full advantage of this.  
  
"Chad, I can't believe you risked your life to save me."  
  
"Rei," he said as he rolled off her, "I love you with all my heart, I always have, and I'd give up my life to save yours any day, no matter if we are together or not."  
  
"Do you mean that?" She asked as he rolled on his side and looked at her eyes once more.  
  
"I think I've proven it to you already." He smiled as he poked her nose and she smiled.  
  
"Yea, you've proven yourself more than worthy."  
  
"Huh? Worthy? Worthy of what?" He asked dumbfounded. "Do I get a prize?"  
  
"... Worthy of me Chad... I really want to be with you."  
  
"... ... Seriously?" He asked dumbfounded once more.  
  
"Yes, very seriously." She said as she kissed him lightly.  
  
"Then, that's the best prize of all." He said as his heart skipped a beat knowing Rei was his.  
  
"I want to be yours... entirely ... I want everything of mine to be yours Chad..." She said, once again, as if she was reading his mind, "...everything... from this..." She said as she put his hand on her heart and saw a smile come across his face. He leaned in to kiss her but she stopped him. "... to this..." She said as she moved his hand slowly down her body until it reached her mound. His smile faded and he gulped loudly. "Are you all right?" She asked.  
  
"Rei... are you... you know? ... innocent?" He asked.  
  
"Do you mean am I a virgin?"  
  
"Yea... that." He said uneasily.  
  
"Yes, why do you ask?"  
  
"Because, I love you and all, but I would feel guilty if I took something so important away from you." He confessed.  
  
"Chad, your first time is supposed to be special, with some one you love right?"  
  
"Uh-huh."  
  
"And I can't think of any one better to do this with than with you." She said as she kissed him.  
  
Sigh "Are you sure?" He asked once more.  
  
"Positive," she replied as she rolled over on top of him and started biting his ear.  
  
"What? ... Now?!" He asked freaking out.  
  
"Uh-huh." She said as she went back to her ear biting.  
  
"But Rei, we are in Ami's house, on her bed none-the-less!"  
  
"Yea, so? I'm sure she'll understand." She said as she moved her face to meet his.  
  
"But... but... ahh fuck it..." He said as he finally gave into temptation and her devilish charms. He gathered the strength to throw her off him and then roll on top of her. He moved her hair so it hung off the bed once more, and he began to kiss her roughly. His hormones got the best of him and his desire began growing. "Rei are you positive this is what you want?" he asked as he broke the kiss.  
  
"Chad... shut up already!" she said as she pulled him back down by his shoulders since he was not wearing his shirt.  
  
"Hey Rei, where's my shirt?" He asked.  
  
"Chad I dunno... its back at the dojo... remember... you stripped down into your boxers when we were playing truth or dare?" She replied very annoyed.  
  
"Oh yea... I did...whoa!" She pulled him back down and began kissing him roughly once more. Her tongue was slipped into his mouth and they began tossing back and forth on the bed...battling over who got to be on top. Finally...Rei won and sat up on his pelvis...her hair just touching his abdomen. She moved her head back and in a circular motion, as if to stretch or crack her neck.  
  
"Chad," she said with a frown, "I'm kinda scared."  
  
"I told you Rei, we don't have to do this if you don't feel comfortable." He replied through labored breathing.  
  
"Never mind," she said as she lay down next to him and motioned him to move on top of her, "I know I'm ready."  
  
"Sure?"  
  
"As I'll ever be." She said confidently as she pushed his hair back and used her scrunchy to tie it up. His eyes were gazing into hers, and his pupils were as big as could be. He began kissing her forehead, then her nose, then her chin, skipping the lips on purpose to tease her. He moved down to the small gap on the front of her neck and felt her breathing get labored as he kissed it gently, then roughly. He moved a little lower and bit the neck of her tank top as if he just wanted to rip it off, tear it to shreds. But he kept himself in check, and worked his way back up to her lips and kissed them, pouring his heart and soul into each kiss. His right hand went to her left breast, and started to slowly caress it, grabbing it in his hand, letting her feel the warmth of his palm. He planned on teasing her until she could hold out no longer and she begged him to just make love to her on the spot... but he couldn't tease her because he wanted her... probably more than she wanted him. He kept on teasing her... but she moved her hand and placed it on top of his hand and tightened his grip on her breast. With that she gave out a moan that caused her to lift her head off the pillow. That little moan drove him crazy... he couldn't handle seeing her like that... so exited... waiting for him and only him to relieve the tension that was building up deep inside her. He massaged her breast harder, faster, and heard her sweet moaning as he did so. The moaning increased his anticipation, it mounted his arousal, it heightened the pleasure. She began to kiss him a bit rougher while he was trying to go for gentle, loving kisses. When she started to get rough, something came up inside of him and he let out a moan that matched hers. She opened her legs slowly and he slipped in between. His body began to grind away on her sweats and he could literally smell her arousal. The smell of her vagina just aroused him more... it was so enticing... calling out to him... begging him to just fuck her right then and there. But no, she meant so much more to him than just a fuck, she was his entire world. He let go of her breast and told her he loved her... and she pushed him off a bit, sat up, and took off her shirt. To him it all seemed in slow motion. The way she took off her shirt was so erotic... how he slowly saw in the darkness her pale skin, her abdomen, her bellybutton, her chest, the dark blue bra that encased her breasts... everything about her fascinated him. When the shirt was finally off her head, he loved the way her hair looked, all messed up, like those sexy women he had so often watched on the porn channels when everyone was sleeping. She looked so natural, so sexy by just being her. He watched as she flicked her hair around until it was finally in place, and as she slowly lay back down and pulled him down to her. He couldn't believe it, was this another one of his fantasies? Could this be real? He kissed her neck and worked his way down, feeling every groove, kissing her collarbone, that drove her nuts. He began to kiss the parts of her breasts that he could see, but they were almost bulging out of the bra.  
  
"Take it off," she said in mid-moan. That was all he needed...he sat her up... and as just as quick as she said that phrase the bra had been pulled off. He kept her in the sitting position and he just kissed her neck and fondled her breasts. She loved the way he touched her breasts. Everything he did to them felt so good to her. She could feel herself getting wetter by the minute, and she knew he could smell her juices. She took his hand off her breast and lay down. She grabbed the back of his head and pulled him down to her chest until he grabbed her breast in his mouth and began to suck on it. She began to pant a little harder now, and their hearts were beating at the same exact quickened pace. He nibbled on her nipple a bit and with his free hand he began to caress her face...he touched her cheek, and then her lips. She was so aroused she took his finger in her mouth and sucked on it slowly, yet greedily.  
  
"Rei, I really want to make love to you now," He said trying to catch his breath. She smiled, nodded her head, and kissed his nose. He kept his eyes fixed on hers as he moved his body down a bit so that his chin lay on her bellybutton and he could see her breasts and a portion of her face. He took in a deep breath and moved his hands from her shoulders, sliding them down the sides of her body until they finally reached her sweats. He sat up as he began to slowly pull them down, looking her in the eyes for any sign of discomfort or disapproval. None came, so he slid them off her left leg, holding her milky-white foot and admiring its beauty as he slipped the pants off. She smiled as he moved to the other side and did the same, kissing her foot as he slipped the other leg of the sweats off. The sweats were tossed lightly off the bed and he kneeled on the bed, sitting on his feet, admiring her body. He started with her toes, trying to make out each toe in the darkness with only the moon's light guiding him. With his index finger he felt each toe, then the sole of her foot with his whole hand. Everything was so smooth and soft. She seemed so precious and delicate to him. He slowly ran both his hands up her legs, stopping at her knees to move up from his current position. She opened her legs a bit and he sat in between them. His hands now moved up her thighs and he caressed the inner part of each thigh, admiring every inch of them. He looked at her dark blue underwear, and the small bow that was in the front. It was so cute to him, so childish and yet on such a grown body. The underwear was low-cut, bikini style, and ended exactly where her pubic line began. He caressed her mound from the outside of the underwear and felt a big wet spot, about the size of a quarter, in the front part of her underwear. He touched that spot the most and watched as her bare breasts rose and dropped with each breath she took. When he stopped touching the spot his fingers felt slippery and slightly sticky, he loved it. He put his hands on the side of the underwear, and she raised her head from the pillow to see what he was doing. Chad stopped, afraid this wasn't what she wanted. She sat up fully, kissed his forehead and caressed the side of his face. He closed his eyes and moved his head towards her hand.  
  
"You sure?" He whispered. She took his left hand and placed it on her mound.  
  
"This is yours too remember?" She smiled.  
  
"God Rei, I love you so damn much." He said as he put his forehead on her own.  
  
"Not more than I love you Chad." His hand moved from her mound to the sides of her underwear. He lay on top of her, but raised his body a bit so he could slide off her underwear. This was the first time he had felt her completely nude under him. He felt so aroused and yet so empowered by her. They began kissing once more, slowly, gently, as he placed his left hand on her face. His right hand began to travel south, climbing over her breast, erecting her nipple as it did so, sliding past her bellybutton and stopping at the pubic line. He broke the kiss.  
  
"Rei, this is probably gonna hurt."  
  
"Ok." She said as she nodded. He raised his eyebrows in an 'are you sure?' position as she nodded once more.  
  
"I'll try to be real gentle ok?" The gentle kiss began once more as he moved his hand through her pubic hair and onto her vagina. His index finger penetrated the warmth and moistness of her thick lips, and they both shuddered as his finger finally reached the entrance to her being. He kissed her forehead as he slowly felt around the orifice, it was so small and so pure, he couldn't wait to be hers, her boyfriend, the one to take away something so precious from her. He pushed his finger slowly against the thin fold of skin that labeled her a virgin, careful not to break it too suddenly for fear of causing her too much pain and making her want to stop. He felt her twitch with pain a bit as he pushed in a little harder with his finger. Her arms got goose bumps on them but she was so brave she didn't even motion to stop. Finally the fold broke and she muffled a little cry and she shut her eyes tight but asked him to keep going. "I think you're bleeding." He said.  
  
"What!?" She asked startled.  
  
"No, its ok, its normal... here." He handed her the napkin that Ami had given him when she brought him the glass of water and the pill. She just stood there, staring at the napkin. "Guess not huh?" He said as he used the napkin to wipe up the blood that had been flowing from her. She just sat up and watched as he gently absorbed all of it. The blood looked black in the moonlight and it was somehow so appealing to both of them. He pressed the napkin against her sex to stop the blood from flowing and they stared and smiled at each other as they waited. Finally, the napkin was removed and placed on the night table. They both sighed and she lay back down. He lay on top of her once more and his fingers made the same journey that had done a few minutes before. Now there was nothing covering her entrance and nothing stopping him from fulfilling both of their desires. 


	14. Lita's Lover

Ok so, due to some fans stalking me online and hounding me for a whole year (LOL), and some of them even coming to my door, I'm continuing the story. I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize for the delay, but college doesn't exactly give me a lot of time to write. Anyways, you can thank Marissa (since she was the ringleader of the online attack :-D) and her friend Tina (who recently reminded me I needed to update.)

(back in the living room)

"This is so relaxing," Mina said as she held her pillow and smiled.

"Sure is," Lita replied, half asleep. A silence took over the living room as Ami turned off the lights and laid down on the inflatable bed next to Lita.

"Goodnight everyone." Lita said with a yawn.

"You're tired?" Serena asked as she sat up on the sofa bed. "Wimp!" She exclaimed as she turned the TV on and surfed through the channels.

"Serena!" Mina exclaimed. "Lower the volume! Chad has a headache and he can probably hear that in there!"

"Oh all right!" she replied as she muted the television as she checked out the TV guide channel. As silence took over the room again, some whispering could be heard coming from Ami's room.

"Guys, do you hear that?" Serena asked as she poked her head up and tried to listen more carefully. An audible moan filled the room.

Lita's eyes opened to their full capacity as she sat up on the inflatable bed and looked at the other girls.

"You don't think they are… …" she said as she made thrusting motions with her hips. Mina broke out in a giggle fit.

"SHHH!" Serena demanded as she grabbed a hold of Mina's mouth, nearly choking her to death. The bed in the room began to move.

"Oh my God GUYS!" Serena yelled in a whisper. Ami just looked so shocked, words could not come out of her mouth.

"Lita, Serena, Mina, you are all overreacting," she said as she scratched her head. "They are obviously shifting positions on the bed, and the moan was probably Chad with his headache. You guys are SO perverted!" She announced as she shook her head.

"Yeah, they're shifting positions all right!" Lita said as she got on all fours and began to moan. Mina broke out into another giggle fit.

"LITA!" Serena yelled as she leaned over and hit Lita on the back of her head. Lita just laughed and sat back down.

"They can't be doing that. She hates him!"

"Pft! You don't need to like some one to get it on with them!" Lita said with a smile.

"What?" Serena inquired. "Hey, wait a minute." Her eyes got a shifty look in them. "We never finished playing truth or dare now did we Lita?"

"What, what are you talking about. I kissed him, I'm not kissing any one of you!" She said with a chuckle.

"Oh no," Mina added with a sly look as well. "You didn't finish your dare now did you? You only answered to Rei's dare, you still have to go through the rest of us."

"Oh brother." She said as she held her forehead in fear. Mina and Serena pounced off the sofa bed and landed on the inflatable bed.

"GUYS!" Ami interrupted. "This bed is full of AIR and it can only handle two people. Four people might cause the air to leak from the bed!"

"Well all right then," Serena said with determination, "lets get on the sofa bed!" She wasn't even done talking when she looked at the sofa bed and the three girls were already on it.

"HEY leave room for me!"

"Don't worry Serena, there's plenty of room for you here." Mina said as Serena climbed up on the bed and pouted.

"So, tell me the crime so I can pay the time." Lita said. The girls got excited.

"Ami, you ask first. I know you're going to give it to me gently." Mina and Serena groaned.

"All right Lita," Ami began, "you spoke earlier about not needing to like some one in order to sleep with them, so this leads me to believe you've had sex before. If so, tell us with who and where."

Serena giggled and hugged Mina as she snorted. Lita's jaw dropped.

"So much for going easy on me!" Lita mumbled as she sweatdropped.

"Come on Lita, SPILL THE BEANS!" Serena encouraged her with the most evil look she could conjure up.

"Well," Lita began. "I was sixteen…"

"So you HAVE done it!" Serena squealed as Mina punched her head down.

"Continue!" Mina and Ami both said with a sheepish smile.

"Right… I was sixteen and it was with Alan." She concluded.

"That's it?" Mina inquired with disappointment.

"Oh wait, and we did it in my house." Lita said looking away.

"Come on Lita!" Mina pleaded. "Give us the dirt!"

Lita smiled and rolled her eyes. "Oh all right!" She said as she laughed and they all closed in on her.

"You all know Alan means a lot to me. And I have always liked him, since we were kids. Well he came over that winter, you guys were there, it was that year Serena tried to snowboard and broke her ass bone." They all giggled and Serena crossed her arms.

"The cabin got in my way." She said with a smile.

"Yeah Im sure it did. Well," she said getting back to her story. "he came over my house a lot during that time, you know, just to catch up and stuff. He'd tell me about school and about how all the girls liked him and stuff. That's when I realized how much I cared for him. I would get jealous whenever he mentioned another girl, even if she was just a friend. Why couldn't we be neighbors again? That way we could go to school together and we could hang out like we used to. Whatever. Eventually we crossed the friend line. I remember I was home alone with him and we were watching a movie. One of those cheesy chick flicks he thought I liked. We were lying on my couch. I was lying between his legs and had my head on his chest. Everything seemed normal, that is, until the couple in the movie started making out. You guys are going to think I'm dirty for this, but I love seeing people make out, there's just something about it. So I watched the stars make out and I started getting a bit excited. Alan noticed it. He saw me rub my knees together and start biting my lips whenever the actors touched each other. I guess I was just a horny teenager." She said with a laugh as she scratched her forehead.

"What happened after that?" Mina asked intrigued.

"Well he asked me if I was feeling all right and I just nodded for yes. So he wrapped his arms around me tightly, and I felt so weak being near him. I felt like all the energy from my body was leaving me, and it concentrated itself between my legs. I had never felt anything so powerful. And that's when he did it. He moved around to shift his body weight and my butt pressed against his groin. I felt him guys, right under me. I felt the bulge in his pants just screaming to come out and fuck me. I tried to hold myself back you know; I imagined my first time to be all romantic and crap. Maybe while we were walking on the beach we'd just drop to the ground and do it. I never thought it would be in my living room."

"Oh this is getting juicy!" Serena said with a singsong voice.

"Well after I felt him under me I moaned by mistake. I couldn't hold it anymore. I knew he wanted it, and I couldn't want it anymore. He slid his hands slowly from my stomach up to my chest. I turned around quickly and he covered his face with his hands, I guess he thought I was going to brat the crap out of him. He said he was sorry, that he had crossed the friend line."

"Well, what did you do!" Mina couldn't hold her excitement anymore.

"I told him I was glad he crossed it because I had been thinking about crossing it all week." She replied.

"Wait, we were up in the cabin that week, skiing and snowboarding." Ami said.

Lita nodded. "I know. I would see him coming out of the bathroom shirtless and I just wanted to jump him. Whenever he ate something and he licked his lips my knees would go weak. I couldn't hold it in. I just wanted to crawl over the table and kiss him until there was no part of him I didn't kiss. And that's what happened that day. I kissed him, he was my true first kiss, you know, with tongue. He didn't even bother to kiss me lightly. We just went into rough kissing. He rolled on top of me and started feeling my chest. Everything he did felt good. Even the way he breathed on my neck when he started thrusting."

"WHAT!" Serena yelled. "What happened between the kissing to the humping?"

"You know, stuff." Lita replied while blushing.

"Like what?" Serena asked impatiently.

"Keep it down guys." Ami reminded them.

"Sorry." Serena apologized.

"Well he…" she hesitated as she smiled. "He went down." She concluded.

"No way!" Serena said as she got closer to Lita and slapped her shoulder. "Details!"

"Well like I said, he started touching my chest, and it felt so good, but at the same time it made things worse. The more he touched me the more excited I got. I just couldn't take it. So I asked him to do more. That's when he took off my jeans and we rolled off the couch and onto the floor. He took my underwear off with his teeth. It was so amazing. I thought he was just going to put his fingers in, but he started kissing my thighs, slowly. He was teasing me more and more each second. Before I knew it he was licking me slowly, then faster. Alan knew what he was doing, I assure you of that. He kissed and licked like an expert. There was nothing I didn't like about it. Even when he would gently bite down on my clit, it was such an amazing feeling. It sent chills down my spine. Eventually I thought I was going to explode from the desire, so I asked him to get in me."

"Just like that?" Mina asked.

"Well, I'm sure I didn't just ask him like that, I can't really remember how I asked, but I know I did. As soon as I had said that he had gotten up from me and he took his shirt off. I started kissing his chest, he was such a skinny guy, but he was so toned. The taste of his sweat was amazing. I can still hear his heart beat getting faster and faster as things heated up some more. I helped him take off his jeans and I almost cried with excitement as he stood there in front of me, wearing just his gray boxers. And his part was so hard. I put my hand on it and I squeezed it. I didn't really know what I was doing. All I remember is squeezing it and him gasping and grunting in my ear. For some reason he kept on stalling the sex. He just kept on touching me and letting me touch him, but I was hungry for it. It's a feeling I can't really describe; you have to feel it for yourself. It's like everything else dissolves around you and all you can feel is your desire, and your moistness, and even if you didn't know what sex was, you knew you wanted what was in his pants. Oh man did I want it. Eventually I got really confused you know, I didn't know what was wrong. I was there without pants, my underwear around my knees, I was standing up kissing his neck while I grabbed him, and all he did was breath and grunt. Eventually I got nervous and asked him if there was something wrong." She giggled.

"Well what did he say?" Ami asked.

"He said he didn't really know what to do. I was his first. He said he had touched girls before but he never really wanted to do anything other than touch. So I asked him if he wanted to stop and he said no, he said he wanted me to be his first."

The girls let out an 'aw.'

"He asked me if I really wanted to do it with a guy that had no experience. He thought he was going to be too rough with me, I found it funny. I told him I didn't know what I was doing either, and that he could be as rough with me as he wanted. That's when he started to lay me down on the floor. I tried to take his boxers off for him but he was shy so I had to close my eyes while he took them off. It was funny yet cute. Then he put his member right on my vagina, and I could feel myself throbbing, just longing for him to finally push it in. I don't know what he was doing though, he just stopped all of a sudden, so I figured I had to take over. I grabbed him and held him tight and I just thrust my hips into him. That was both the best, and the worst feeling in the world."

"Why was it bad?" Serena asked in her naïve way.

"It hurt like hell. I went down too fast and Alan was pretty big." She measured out about nine inches with her hands.

"It felt good because I quivered under him but it really did hurt. I bled on the carpet and everything."

"Wait, I thought you said that stain by the couch was cranberry-grape juice." Mina said.

"Well, now you know what the stain really is." Lita said embarrassed. The girls gasped in amazement.

"So did you do it on the floor?" Serena asked impatiently.

"You sure are taking great interest in this Serena." Ami laughed.

"I've never done it! So I want to know what its like!" she replied.

"Oh come on Serena, Darien is eight years older than you, you expect us to believe you haven't given him any loving?" Mina joked.

"Well I haven't. Darien and I haven't even touched each other that way." She confessed.

"Are you serious? Wow! I'm shocked. He's 26 now Serena. You're going to be 18 in a few days. I can't believe you haven't slept with him! You guys have been together 4 years now. That's a long time to go without sex or touching. You better watch out, he might be cheating on you." Lita kidded around.

"You guys think so?" Serena said in a panic.

"No silly, she's kidding." Mina reassured her. "Lita you never got to finish."

"Yeah! Did you do it on the floor?" Serena asked once more.

"No, not really. After the pain from the initial thrust, he started going slow. It was good, but I wanted more. I told him that he didn't have to hold back. I could take whatever he had in store. So he helped me stand up, he slammed me against the wall, picked up my legs and wrapped them around his waist, and just fucked me raw."

Mina and Ami gasped in shock.

"Guys, what's raw?" Serena questioned once more.

"Raw is when you have sex without protection. Jeez Serena don't you know anything?" Mina asked with a smirk.

"No, nothing like that!" she wailed as a reply.

"I can't believe you did it without protection Lita! Do you know the risk you took?" Ami nagged.

"Yeah yeah, I know, but I wasn't really thinking at the time. I guess I lucked out though," she said as she patted her belly. "Anyways after that weekend I went over his house a lot and we did it there some more. I have to say, in the two weeks he was here, we must have done it about two dozen times. It was addicting. Everything he did to me felt new and everything about him while he was on me was beautiful, even the way his hair dripped sweat after we were done. We were so hot and animal like."

"Hey is that why you weren't around to cook for me that WHOLE week! I almost died Lita!" Serena said as her stomach grumbled.

"Guys I need some food. I'm ordering out." Serena said as she headed to the kitchen to grab the phone.

"Didn't you say you were off on a meditation quest to relax and find yourself?" Ami pondered.

"That's what I told you guys. I didn't really know what to say to you, I didn't want you guys to be disappointed in me, or think I was cheap or anything." She said as she bowed her head.

"Why would we think that? We've ALL done it!" Mina said excitedly. As soon as she realized what she said she covered her mouth.

"oops…"

"Ha, well I know who the next victim is in the game." Lita laughed as she nudged Mina.

Serena ran back into the room.

"Do you guys want eggrolls?" she asked as she jumped up and down.

"Order me some Lo Mein!" Lita said.

"I'd like some steamed broccoli over fried rice." Ami said.

"How about you Mina?" Serena asked.

"She wants a manwich." Lita joked.

"Do you guys have man-wiches?" Serena asked the man over the phone.

"What do you mean? I don't think this is a hotline! I just want some FOOD!" she whispered into the phone. The girls laughed.

"Three spring rolls and some watermelon bubble tea will be fine." Mina said as she punched Lita in the arm and began to grumble. Serena finished ordering and hung up the phone.

"So Lita," Serena said with sly eyes, "did you orgasm?"

"Did I EVER!" Lita exclaimed as she stood up from the bed. The girls turned to face her.

"It was GREAT... best feeling in the world! Alan just kept thrusting me into the wall and I grabbed onto his back and dug my nails in. The pleasure was so great that I thought I was going to explode from the inside. And that's when it happened." She said pointing at Serena and getting into a fighting stance.

"He bit my neck gently and thrust in one last time and I felt my vagina spasm around his manhood and I felt him orgasming into me. It was such a great feeling! I remember resting my head against the world and screaming out…"

"Oh Chad!" a loud moan came from within the room. The girls all froze and looked at each other. Lita brought her arms down and crossed them across her chest. She looked at Ami with a raised eyebrow.

"You still think that's his headache talking?" She said with a smirk.

"It's not possible… Rei and Chad… no it can't be… not on MY BED!" Ami yelled in a whisper.

"It can't be! Rei is getting loving before me!" Serena cried as she bit her nails.

"Shhh! Quiet guys! Let's listen in!" Mina suggested. Lita, Mina, and Serena all moved in closer to the door. Ami stood behind on the sofa bed. Serena and Lita pressed their ears to the doors and giggled while Mina looked in through the keyhole in the door.

"Guys they aren't doing it." Mina announced.

"What?" Lita exclaimed in a whisper.

"He's laying next to her kissing her." Mina said.

"Let me see what do you know about this?" Serena said pushing Mina to the side and looking for herself.

"Wait, where's his hand?" Serena asked.

Lita and Mina laughed.

"Move over Serena, let the EXPERT handle this." She said as she looked into the keywhole.

"Guys he's fingering her. Oh my God he's fingering her!" She managed to say without giggling.

"And its her first time too!" She announced.

"Now how would you know about that Lita! Have you examined her?" Serena asked with a snotty attitude.

"No I haven't, but there is a paper covered in blood by Ami's night lamp. It looks like a napkin." Lita replied.

"My bed! My dresser! My LAMP!" Ami exclaimed as she put her hands on her eyes and peeked through the fingers in horror.

"This is so unfair!"

"Chill Ami, it has to happen SOMETIME." Lita announced.

"I hope they have protection if they get to do it." Mina announced.

"Nope, doesn't look like they do." Lita said as she looked all over the bed for a condom.

"I won't stand for this! I can't believe this irresponsibility!" Ami said as she charged towards the door.

"Ami NO!" Lita and Mina threw themselves on the floor and grabbed her ankles before she could reach the door.

"Let go of my ankles I say, or I'll scream!" Ami said with authority.

"Come on Ami, don't ruin the moment, they are SO into it!" Lita said as Chad gave a small grunt and Serena almost died with giggles.

"I'm not going to ruin it, I'm just going to educate them!" Ami said.

"How is that not ruining the moment!" Mina asked. Lita started laughing as she and Mina let go of Ami's ankles. They stood up.

Lita began to speak in a goofy voice.

"Now boys and girls, you put the condom over the penis and pinch the tip, like so, you then proceed to insert the penis gently into the 'fagina'." She concluded as Mina laid down on the sofa bed and opened her legs. Lita proceeded to insert an imaginary penis inside her.

"And THAT boys and girls, is how it's done properly." She said dabbing imaginary sweat off her brow with her shirt. Serena was blushing and her eyes were bulging out with embarrassment. Mina could only smother her face with a pillow as she laughed uncontrollably. Ami's face reddened.

"I know what I'm doing… just go lay down. Trust me on this." She said as she approached the door and the other girls darted for the sofa bed. Mina got there last and she couldn't fit.

"Get DOWN!" Serena yelled as she kicked Mina and she fell onto the inflatable bed, the impact was so rough that the bed split open on one side and a large farting sound filled the room. The girls couldn't hold it anymore and they laughed loudly to the point of tears.

"GUYS!" Ami said mid giggle fit. "Be silent!" She exclaimed as she looked through the door and saw Rei and Chad frantically searching for their underclothes.

"Guys be quiet!" Ami said loudly. "We don't want to wake up Rei and Chad, the poor boy has a headache." She said winking to the girls.

"Sorry Ami," Mina said through her tears.

"Sleeping I thought they were…" Lita quickly covered Serena's mouth. Serena began to wriggle and they both fell onto the inflatable bed, making yet another flatulent melody. They laughed twice as hard with the occasional snort that would begin a new wave of laughter.

Ami pressed her finger against her lips in a "shut up" motion.

"I just hope my alarm doesn't wake them. It's set for 6 in the morning. Maybe I'll just knock and ask them." She said as she knocked gently on the door.

"Rei, Chad, I'm sorry to wake you," she said gently. "I just wanted to come in and make sure my alarm is turned off."

"NO DON'T COME IN!" Chad yelled. Rei slapped his head.

"Oh Ami don't open the door, the light is going to wake me up fully and then I won't be able to go back to bed." She said out of breath.

"Now where is your alarm clock?" Rei asked, Chad's fingers still entering and exiting her sex. The excitement of getting caught was amazing, she felt it as well.

"I believe it is inside my bottom desk drawer." Ami said as seriously as she could, noticing that all the lights were off so there was nothing to really wake Rei. By now the laughter had subsided and the girls were all pressed up against the door listening. They heard the sheets rustling and Rei moaning lightly.

"Chad what if she comes in?" she asked lightly.

"Then I'll move my hand real quick and cover you with the sheets." He said as he licked her neck and she gasped for air.

The girls were outside the door listening and giggling.

"Have you found it?" Ami inquired.

"Just a minute." Rei said as she began to run her hands through the knobs on the drawers.

"Why the hell would Ami keep her alarm clock in her bottom drawer?" She asked Chad in a whisper.

"How should I know?" he asked with a smile as he peeked into the drawer and saw a box of condoms. Both their eyes widened in shock. Did Ami know what they were doing? And more importantly, what where THESE doing in HER drawer!

"Have you found it Rei?" Ami asked again.

"Um… well… I … I … I haven't opened it yet." Rei said slamming the drawer close a bit too loudly. Ami smiled.

"Wait! Don't open that drawer!" she said in the most dramatic voice she could muster without laughing.

"The clock is in the FIRST drawer, I apologize for my mistake." She said with a smile as she faced the floor.

Rei opened the first drawer and saw the alarm clock sitting there. The alarm was turned off.

"Um… Ami… it's… it's turned off." Rei said still in shock.

"Are you sure it's not turned on?" Lita yelled from the living room. Mina punched her and began to laugh.

"No, no it's off." Rei replied not catching the innuendo.

"Well, that was all I wanted." Ami said as she peeled the girls off the door.

"Sorry for waking you, hope your bed… I mean head feels better Chad. Goodnight Rei." She said as she walked back to the sofa bed, dragging the giggling girls with her.

There was silence for a few minutes but then the intermittent panting could once again be heard from the room.

"Ami what was in that drawer?" Mina asked.

"Condoms!" Serena yelled through her whispers.

"Finally, she's catching on." Lita said as she sat on the window and watched the deliveryman enter Ami's building.

"Food's here." She said looking at Serena who was already darting out the door.

"Ami," Mina said with a blank expression. "It seems to me that you have secrets of your own."

"I do, but sadly, my story is not as delightful as Rei nor Lita's." She said with a cracking voice as she got up and went to the kitchen. Not a minute later Serena had come through the door with an eggroll in her mouth and brown bags in her hands.

"Food's here!" she said mumbling and chewing with a smile. She dropped the bags and opened a can of soda.

"What's with the worried faces? I paid the bill!" Serena said as she threw a box of lo mein at Lita.

"That's nice of you Serena." Said Ami as she came into the room with bowls and utensils. Here eyes were a bit damp but she wiped them before Serena could see.

"Now eat up! We don't want the food going to waste by getting cold!" She said as she opened her rice box and began to pour into her plate.

"Not while IM around!" Serena announced with her chopsticks in the air.

All eyes were on Ami, except Serena's, who was focused on devouring her food and stealing bits and pieces from the plates of those who were not looking. Ami just looked at Lita and Mina and ate her food in silence.


	15. The Kingdom Falls

The sun shone brightly through Ami's living room window. Lita sat up and yawned as she stretched her arms and cracked her back.

"Hey Serena, get up." Mina said as she tried to leave the sofa bed.

"Serena, get your arm… off of me!" She grunted as she tried to remove Serena's arm from her midriff. Serena moaned lightly as she lifted her arm and continued to snore and drool on Ami's pillow.

"Hey Ami." Lita said as she got up and took down her ponytail. "Were you up all night?" She asked as she walked over to the windowsill where Ami sat.

"Oh no," she said with a gentle smile. "I'm just an early bird I guess." She said as she put down a pharmacology reference book that she had been holding against her chest.

"Looking for drugs?" Lita joked. Mina walked on over.

"Hey Ami, do you mind if I use your shower?" She asked with a bit of an embarrassed blush. Ami just laughed at her politeness and pointed her to the shower. Mina received a towel and a fresh change of clothes.

Serena continued to sleep, not realizing that every one else was up nor that the sun was shining ever so brightly through Ami's window and on her face.

"Nice view." Lita said, feeling an odd vibe coming from Ami.

"Yes, it is one of the pros of living in a building." She paused to look outside. "Don't you just feel like a bird?" She asked Lita as she closed her eyes and felt a light breeze coming in.

Lita looked out the window. "No, I feel like I'm in a building." She smiled. Ami opened her eyes, a light blush coloring her face.

"Ami," Lita began with a furrowed brow.

"I'm worried about you, you know?"

Ami looked over with a shaky look, almost as if she knew what was headed her way. "What ever do you mean Lita?"

"Ami, don't do that. I know you know what I'm about to ask." She walked away into the kitchen. Ami sighed and held her forehead in her palm briefly before hopping off the windowsill and walking slowly in the same direction.

"Who did it?" Lita asked.

"Wh… what?" Ami asked almost innocently.

"Who did it?" Lita asked again with an almost somber look to her face.

"Who raped you?" She asked abruptly, her hand in a tight fist as she prepared to hear the answer.

"Please, don't tell the others." Ami pleaded almost desperately as a lonely tear dropped from her surprised eyes.

"So, it's true." Lita said, as she looked down at the table, almost afraid to face Ami. "Who did it?" She asked once more.

"I… I don't know." Ami responded lightly. She began to rub her arm and look at her shoulder in shame.

"How did it happen?" Lita beckoned for an answer.

"I was young Lita, it doesn't really matter now I guess." She said in a shaky whisper. Her left hand was shaking lightly and her forearm hairs stood on their tips as if a ghost had just cradled her in its arms.

"How can it not matter?" She asked almost angrily. Ami just shrugged submissively. Lita got up and paced back and forth, passing Ami over and over again, a cold gust from Lita's pacing continually hitting Ami in the shoulder. Lita finally settled down, her hands resting over the kitchen sink as she looked down the drain.

"Was it Greg?" She broke the silence with her probing question.

Ami's eyes opened even more in shock.

"No, not ever." She said as she shook her head, not believing Lita could dare ask such a thing.

"Lita, please don't worry about this. It's in the past. It's not something I want to talk about." She said a bit sternly with a hint of pain in her voice. Lita continued to look down the kitchen drain with a flushed look to her face.

"Lita, are you all right?" Ami asked as she walked over and tried to touch Lita's head.

Lita quickly grabbed Ami's arm mid-air before it could touch her. Ami was caught off guard.

"Fine." Lita responded dryly as she let go of Ami's arm.

"Lita, I…" Ami began.

"Good Morning." A deep voice walked into the kitchen. Ami immediately lowered her arm and turned around to find Chad standing in his jeans, looking at both Ami and Lita with a questioning look.

"I'm sorry, did I interrupt something? I can leave."

"No." Lita answered sharply and stood up straight. She picked her hair up in her ponytail and walked lazily out of the room.

"Chad." Ami said with an enthusiastic voice. "How are you feeling?" She asked, noticing that his head didn't seem to ache too badly.

"Fine actually." He said as he reached into his pocket and disposed of a large wad of tissues.

Ami tried to remain innocent.

"It seems that rest was what the doctor ordered." Chad nodded lightly. Ami noticed he winced in pain as he stood up straight.

"Is your back all right? Did, did you strain it last night?"

Chad shook his head. "I don't know, maybe." He rubbed a tender spot on his back. A light scratching sound emerged from Ami's front door. Chad turned around.

"Who can that be?" Ami asked as she walked over to the door and looked out the peephole. She saw no one. The scratch returned.

"Chad, can you hear that?" she asked lightly. Lita walked over and pushed Ami away from the door slowly. She opened the door a crack and looked out.

"No one's there." Lita said as she opened the door a bit wider. She screamed. "SOMETHING JUST TOUCHED MY LEG!" She explained as she jumped abruptly. A loud meow erupted as Lita landed on Luna's tail.

"Luna!" Ami exclaimed with glee. "Come in." She said as she closed the door behind Artemis. Luna complained at Lita and Lita apologized with a sweat-dropping face as they entered the living room.

"Be silent, Serena and Rei are still asleep." Ami warned.

"Be silent on Serena and Rei's account? HA!" Luna laughed loudly with a vein popping out of her forehead.

"Those two sleep like pigs, watch!" Luna hopped up next to Serena and hissed loudly in her ear. Serena just continued to drool and snore.

"See what I mean?" She asked as she hopped on the sofa head and sat down, Artemis doing the same.

"Where were you? We waited for you late last night." Lita asked.

"Well we came. Believe me, we came." Luna began with a heavy sigh.

"But alas, our feeble attempts of scratching and meowing to get inside were drowned by the loud sounds that I can familiarly identify as Serena's loudmouthed eating." Artemis chuckled.

"What happened last night girls?" Artemis asked with concern.

"Well," Ami began. Chad walked over to Ami's room and closed the door so that Rei would not be awakened.

"Chad?" Rei mumbled as her eyes opened into a small slit. She saw Chad closing the door and the faint silhouettes of the guardian cats. She groaned in weak protest as she got under the covers and closed her eyes once more.

"Rei?" A voice beckoned. "Rei! Princess Hino!"

Rei opened her eyes and sat up on her bed. She threw the silk sheets off her legs as she hopped out.

"Rei, open the window, come on." A pebble hit her window. Rei walked over casually towards the large glass doors that led to her balcony. A pebble hit the doors right as she was going to open them. She gasped with fright for a moment before she looked out.

"Chad!" She exclaimed in a whisper as she hurriedly opened the balcony doors. Her see-through red curtains blew with the breeze as she hurried out and leaned over the balcony.

"Chad!" She looked down, a big smile on her face.

"Shh… don't move, I'm coming up." He said as he laid down a heavy sword and began to remove some heavy armor off his body.

"No." She said as she looked back into her room.

"I'll come down." She giggled lightly as she wrapped her hair around her neck and began descending with care. Her feet stepped lightly over the railing of the balcony and then began to scale down a large mass of ivy that had been invading her palace.

"I'm stuck." She mumbled lightly with a smile. Her black ankle bracelet had gotten tangled within the ivy. She jiggled her foot gently to loosen the knot and then continued to drop towards Chad.

"Rei." Chad whispered as she finally dropped to the ground without a sound, almost like a stealthy cat in the night. Rei brushed down her red mesh nightgown; taking special care to remove the ivy leaves gently enough so as to not rip the material.

"I hate this material." She said as she shivered. Chad chuckled lightly as he picked up a blanket off the floor and wrapped it around her.

"Fickle weather." He said as he wrapped her tightly. "Hot during the day and freezing during the night."

"Come on, hurry!" She said as she grabbed his hand and his sword.

"Where are we going?" He questioned.

"Shh… get your armor." She commanded.

"Rei." He smiled. She tightened the grip on his hand and ran as fast as her nimble legs let her. They stopped in front of a large greenhouse.

"What are we doing here?" He asked. She ignored his question and carefully removed the black Mars sign that hung low below her choker and placed it in an aluminum mold. A green light lit up and the doors to the green house opened. She dragged Chad inside and closed the doors before the cold, red dust of Mars could enter the room and give them away. Rei walked in the darkness and beckoned Chad to follow.

"This way." She continued to walk.

"Can we hit a light?" He asked as he hit his head on an overhead-heating lamp.

"Sure, if you want us to get caught." Chad followed the sound of her bare feet hitting the concrete floor. Together, they went down a set of stairs.

"Where are we?" He asked.

"The storage shed." She said as she turned on the lights.

"We're a bit far, what if some one comes in?"

"Who is going to come in here at this hour?" She asked.

"I don't know." He said a bit unsure as he dropped his armor on the floor.

"What were you doing outside my window Chad?" She asked as she lay down his sword. "Do you know what would have happened to you if my father found out about this?"

"I know, I know." He said, almost as if angry with himself. He began to pace lightly. "I had to see you." He moved closer and held her upper arms. "I just, I can't contain it anymore Rei."

"Chad.." She said with an upset look. "I can't keep doing this. I'm spoken for."

"Run away with me." He interrupted.

"Chad, that is ridiculous. Where would we go? Don't you think people will recognize me wherever we go?"

"Yes, I know. But what will you have me do? Will you have me sit idly by and watch as you marry another man?" His tone had increased. "I'm sorry." He said as he calmed down.

"And what will you have me do?" Her face now angered.

"What Chad? What?" She scoffed.

"Do you want me to walk up to my father and tell him I'm going to let down our planet by not marrying prince Aziel? Do you want me to tell him that I'm going to throw out all we've ever worked to achieve just because I fell in love with a knight?"

"So you do love me?" He asked with a smile.

"Chad, of course I do. I love you so much that it hurts to be apart from you. I can't take my mind off of you. Don't you think it hurts me to see you every day but to be unable to speak to you because you are just my servant?"

Chad looked down in disappointment. "I wish I could be a prince… your prince. I wish I had been born into royalty instead of into a blacksmithing family. Maybe if I were iced down in diamonds your father would respect me and what we share." His face was worked into a pitiful frown.

"I'm sorry that I got angry with you." Rei said as she placed her porcelain white hand on his stubble-sporting cheek.

"I don't know what to do Chad. I don't want to keep living like this. I don't. I wish I had the freedom to do as I please. I wish I weren't the princess of Mars." Her eyes began to water with frustration.

"Please, don't cry." He said as he kissed her cheek.

"One tear from your eyes and I'll fall apart." She nodded and held her composure.

"Let's just, enjoy our days together." He smiled as she buried her face in his chest and sobbed silently. How it pained him to see her cry. But what could he do? He was just a knight in her army. He was just a servant that would never be worth anything, at least not in the eyes of her father.

"Let's run away." She said through her silent sobs. She lifted her head and wiped away her tears.

"I don't care where we go. I don't care who knows. I don't want to marry Aziel. I don't want to rule this planet silently while my husband speaks for me. Chad I just, I just want to leave it all behind. All of it, I want it behind me." She said as he silenced her and kissed her lips gently.

"Then we'll do just that." He said as he ran his fingers through her hair and kissed her forehead. She slowly removed the blanket around her and let it drop silently to the floor.

"Tomorrow then, we'll escape tomorrow." She said as she pet his face and looked deep into his dark eyes.

"Promise me we'll be together and I'll believe you."

"I promise we'll be together no matter what." He said as he kissed her hand with all his might.

"I should get you back now, Princess."

"No, not yet. Stay with me a little longer." She pleaded as she moved closer to him and pulled his head down for a kiss.

"That's a nice little number." He said as he looked at her nightgown. The red mesh was so fine that any harsh movement could rip it. The material was a transparent blood red color that clung lightly on her body.

"Do you like it?" She said as she coyly spun around for him to see the whole piece.

"What happened to the rest of it?" He joked.

"It's supposed to be like this Chad!" She said angrily as she looked down at the garment.

"It's supposed to be revealing yet sexy and mysterious." With a blush, she crossed her arms, remembering that the material was so fine that it left nothing to the imagination.

"Who told you that?"

"The tag." She smiled innocently.

"Well, we can't call that false advertising now can we?" He smiled as he held her in his arms a while longer before they had to say their goodbyes. They carefully walked out in the coldness of the night and found their way to her window.

"I guess this is it." She said with a painful tone.

"Until tomorrow." He whispered in her ear as he landed a tender kiss on her cheek. She smiled.

"Until tomorrow." She began to climb up the ivy with extra caution. Chad stood below watching their surroundings until she reached the balcony.

"Goodnight." She said as she began to go inside.

"Rei!" He called to her in a whisper. She looked over the railing. He smiled. "I love you."

"I know." She responded with a giggle as she went inside and closed the glass doors. "I love you too." She said to herself as she got in her bed and buried herself under her silk sheets.

Chad looked above her balcony and saw a frightful sight. Rei's mother was looking out her window and straight at him. His eyes widened with fright as he met her icy stare. She nudged her head as if telling him to scoot.

"Thank you." He whispered, still shaking, as he picked up his sword and armor and ran for dear life.

The next day Rei awakened in the best of moods. She looked out her glass doors and stared at the sky. Her eyes were quickly drawn to the ground where she saw an entire army standing in attention.

"No!" She muttered as she raced to her closet and dressed herself in her princess gown with a heavy heart. She slipped her feet into her black heels and ran as fast as her feet let her through the castle. Her heels echoed on the pillars and walls of the dining room and followed her into the throne room. She burst the doors open with a merciless push. She stood in place, gasping for air and removing her hair from her face as she saw her father along with 20 knights strategizing a counterattack.

"Father!" She exclaimed. "What is going on?"

"The Moon Kingdom is under attack, Rei. We have to help Queen Serenity." He said simply.

"Father…"

"Rei this is not the best time. The Negaverse is taking over as we speak. Once Beryl and her men have taken over the Moon, we are next. Rei, I need you there, I need you there now!" Her father yelled with a reddened face.

"But father…"

"Rei this is not the time!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. "This is a war and I need you, as a sailor senshi, to protect the Queen and her daughter! Now that's an order!" He concluded.

"Yes father." Rei said as she bowed and took a quick scan of the room. She saw Chad with and enraged expression on his face clenching his teeth and digging his nails into his closed fist.

"Chad." Her father began, "you and your men are my main army. You will attack Beryl's goons first." Chad nodded obediently. Rei's heart felt as if it was exploding in her chest cavity.

"_What am I going to do?"_ She thought with defying tears as she ran outside and faced her army. The men all looked at her with both assiduousness and yearning.

"Right," she said to herself as she harnessed the power of Mars and transformed into her senshi form.

"Gentlemen," she began, "do you know why you are gathered here outside the palace gates this morning?" The men shook their heads.

"There is a war at hand." Rei removed her ebony tresses from her face. "Queen Beryl and her men have opened attack on the Moon Kingdom." The sentence had not been finished and the men had already begun conversing among themselves.

"Gentlemen!" The fire senshi called out in hopes of getting their attention.

"I know that many of you have friends and loved ones in the Moon Kingdom as do I, but this is a time for action, not words. I am headed towards Serenity's palace with a mission to protect both the queen and the crown princess. Now, who is with me?"

A large uproar of approval was heard. A feeling of accomplishment washed over the princess' body.

"_Maybe I really can be queen."_ She thought briefly before the army silenced itself. The red planet seemed redder than ever. Its sands blew off into the hot air, creating small tornadoes. A hand was placed on Rei's shoulder.

"Father." She acknowledged the presence behind her.

"A fine job indeed, Rei." He said proudly as he stood before her and his shadow cast on her body making her look insignificant.

"Men!" He called out. "Pay attention!" He beckoned. "You will be divided into groups of twenty. Each group will be given a strategic position around the queen's palace. From there you will follow either my order," he paused. "Or his orders if I should fall." He pointed at Chad who stepped forth next to the king.

"Milady." A servant humbly called to Rei.

"Not now." She whispered angrily as she tried to listen to her father speak.

"Milady, I have strict orders to get you in a space pod now." The girl said with a bowed head. "We haven't time to waste."

"That's okay, I'll use the transporter, and I'll be there in mere seconds."

"The transporter gates have been shut down on all the planets to insure that Beryl's army does not have easy access to the palaces."

"What?" Rei whispered almost enraged. She did not feel like dealing with this now. All she cared about was Chad's fate.

"Very well then." She said as she walked away silently through the shadows of the army, stomping her heels in the red sand as she passed in front of the battalion. The men looked at her with the corners of their lusty eyes.

"Look at the man on either side of you." The king ordered. The men looked left and right and then straight back into the King's eyes.

"If you are lucky, one of the three of you will be alive by the end of this. Do NOT take Beryl's men for granted!" The king's voice faded out.

Rei entered the space pod with the help of the servant girl.

"Be careful milady." The girl said tenderly as she closed the door to the pod and waited for a small hiss to emerge.

"Right." Rei said as she shook her head and focused on the panel that lay ahead of her.

"Full speed towards the Moon Kingdom." She ordered as she input a set of very familiar coordinates into the main computer. For a brief moment, she looked out the window as the pod began responding to her commands and started powering up. The Martian army was dispersing like heavy perfume in a well-aired room. Shuttles were filled to the brim with men bearing lasers and swords.

"Now for you." The king yelled at Chad's squad, which knelt 30 feet before him.

"Out of the 20 of you, I don't guarantee the return of a single one of you. You are the bravest men in my army, fearless, ruthless, and deadly. Follow the orders of your leader." He patted Chad's shoulder.

"And you cannot go wrong. Off you go!" He commanded as the men bowed their heads and marched towards their ship.

"Chad," the king said as the young knight prepared to follow his men. "There's a high chance you won't survive this trip. If you don't make it, I'll give you a burial fit for a prince." He said as he nudged his head and Chad was off, flaming sword in hand.

Chad took one last look at Rei who was now preparing for takeoff.

"I won't fail you." He said to her even though she could not hear. As he passed her, he ran his hand across her window in hopes that she'd feel him one last time before his death.

"Chad!" She screamed in the soundproof pod as the sweaty traces of his hand disappeared from her window. Before she could open the door and run to him for one last kiss, her pod lifted off and she was hurled into space.

The battle on the Moon was ruthless. Beryl's men took no pity on the Martian soldiers nor on the sailor senshi. The craters on the Moon were filled with bleeding corpses and men with missing appendages trying desperately to crawl out with no success while Beryl's henchmen tortured them slowly with their swords, cutting slices off their flesh.

"Hang on tight!" Jupiter called out as she held Mars' hand tighter than ever. "Keep the circle going!" She yelled as loud as she could but her voice was drowned out by the sounds of war.

"Lita!" Mercury yelled as she felt her fingers slip from her friend's hand. "I can't seem to hang on!" Her voice began breaking as a sudden pulse of energy broke their hands free and each of the four scouts flew in the air in different directions.

Queen Serenity looked on from the inside of her glorious palace.

"I can't let them die Luna!" She yelled as she hurriedly speed-walked from room to room until she found her daughter.

"Serena, I've got no choice but to send you to Earth along with the senshi to protect you." Before Serena had a chance to protest against her mother's decision, the queen was calling Prince Darien of Earth to come in from battle. Quickly enough, he retreated with the remaining of his generals. He bowed.

"Prince Darien, this war cannot be won by us, we must accept this. I want you to take my daughter and any of our knights that remain alive, including the sailor senshi to Earth with you. Watch over them and don't let the memory of our lives here in the Moon Kingdom fade from Serena's life."

"Mother no!" Serena protested but the queen would have none of it. She hit her staff twice on the marble floors and closed her eyes. Before she could get another word out, Serena found herself incased in what seemed to be a large bubble. Her eyelids began to feel heavy and her body crunched itself into the fetal position.

"Your majesty, what should I do when we get to Earth?" Prince Darien asked the queen.

"Nothing for the time being, you won't be able to remember anything at all. You will all be reborn on Earth and your paths will be revealed when the time is right. Now go, go and gather the senshi! Hurry Darien!" The queen stood idly as the young prince ran as fast as he could with his generals.

"You're my last hope." Darien's frame was now lost in the distance and all that could be heard where the shrieking screams of servants running frantically through the palace.

"Luna, Artemis." She called her guardians over.

"Go with them. Find them. Gather them. Remind them of their pasts. Don't fail me now." With one stroke of her staff her loyal blue-eyed guardian was in a bubble and her lifetime partner not far behind. The two bubbles shot through the ceiling and headed for Earth without waiting for neither the crown Princess nor the fallen senshi.

"Please take care of my little Serena."

The queen mumbled through tears of worry as a huge explosion crashed through her balcony and sent thousands of tiny glass knives flying through the air.

"Finally Serenity, your time has come." Beryl said with a throaty voice as her high heels crushed the glass beneath her with every step. The evil queen snickered with malice as she focused her dark amber eyes on the fallen queen of the Moon palace. Serenity lay on the floor, her hand on her neck as she pulled out a large shard of glass.

"My time to die has come, but I will never die by your hand!" She yelled weakly in defiance as she tapped her staff on the floor once. Serena's bubble flew out the window and floated hundreds of feet above the palace, awaiting Darien and the fellow senshi. Serenity let go of her neck and watched dizzily as the wound from her neck gushed blood down her white gown.

"NO!" Beryl yelled in anger as the queen inevitably bled to death. "You will die when I'm damn ready to let you!" She yelled in sheer anger.

Darien heard Beryl's loud roar echo through the palace and out-scream the beat of his relentless heart.

"Queen Serenity…" he stopped and looked back. He wanted to save the queen from Beryl, but deep down, he knew the queen was already dead.

"I can't let Serena down." He ran onto the battlefield with his sword in hand and his generals beside him.

"We'll clear the way!" Kunzite yelled as he dove into the mass of soldiers, followed by his fellow generals.

One slash after another, he worked his way through Beryl's soldiers in the search for the sailor scouts.

"Mina!" Darien called as he ran past Jadeite.

"Mina!" No response came from the unconscious blonde. She lay face down on the hard ground. Her hair covered in silver dust and her red bow undone. "I'm coming Mina, don't give up on me now!" He jumped over corpses and ducked from enemy blows.

"_What am I supposed to do once I get to her? Do I need to take her back to… the queen?"_

A look of shock was sported on his face once he realized that Serenity was dead and that he had no way of getting these girls off the Moon. He began to tear as he approached Mina with fear of finding her dead. The girl groaned weekly as she tried to lift her head from the bloody floor.

"Prince Darien!" She called out to him.

"Shh, don't worry, I'm here to help you! We have to go to Earth where the Negaverse can't find us."

"How?" She asked with tears in her eyes as she noticed a long bone protruding from her wrist.

"I'm not sure. Let me look at that." Darien dropped his sword and grabbed Mina's wrist. Almost instantly, a bubble encapsulated the teary-eyed blonde and she was launched in the air to join Serena.

"What the…?" He asked himself in confusion.

"Let me GO!" A stern voice, which he recognized as Lita's, pierced through the sounds of the battle. Prince Darien worked his way to her as well. He sliced the head off a Negaverse warrior and slid under a Venusian warrior who was being skinned alive.

"Prince Darien!"

"Lita, I'm here to help. Give me your hand!"

"No!" She pushed away from him. "Find Ami. I will look for Rei, we'll work better as a team."

"Get over here!" A female warrior yelled as she threw a pair of sai's at the green scout.

"We'll meet by the teleporter!" Lita yelled as she ran straight for the warrior who had attempted to kill her. With one swift jump, Lita found herself airborne and a ball of electricity broke through her body and expanded to hit six men and the female warrior who had thrown the knives.

"Don't even get me started." She said as she wiped some blood off her eye-lid and ran off into the distance to find the Martian Princess.

"Rei where are you? Rei!"

"Lita?" Rei's voice whimpered. "I'm here Lita." She said weakly as she opened her eyes. Her hair was caught on something and didn't let her lift her head very far.

"Don't leave me Lita." She spoke through her tears as faint and weak as a baby deer that had been shot in the heart by a hunter. She ran her hand through the strands of her hair carefully until she found a large knot tangled around a foreign object.

"This isn't the time for this." She complained as she ripped out chunks of her hair in order to break loose. Her movements were restrained and all she could see was darkness and all she could smell was burnt flesh and the metallic smell of blood.

"Lita!" her voice died as she saw the long legs of her friend running right past her in green high-heeled boots.

"Lita I'm here!"

"Rei!" Lita stopped and backtracked. "Rei is that you?"

"Lita. Please get me out of here!" She yelled out but no sound came out.

"Lita!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, the Mars symbol on her forehead burning bright.

"Get me out of here!" Her voice commanded as her body was lit on fire and she rose slowly from a heap of bodies.

"Rei!" Lita gasped in shock as the bodies burned beneath her.

"Rei come on, we have to make it to the teleporter!" Lita ran towards her friend who had now collapsed next to the burning pile of mutilated soldiers.

"I can't leave without Chad!" She yelled as she tried to pry herself from Lita's arms.

"Rei, come on. We need to get out of here!" She commanded as she grabbed Rei's arm.

"Lita no!" She yelled as she broke free and fell to the ground from the momentum.

"I have to find him."

"Find who? Who is Chad?" Lita demanded to know.

"Help me find him Lita!" Rei yelled as she dug through the bodies.

"We don't have time to play this stupid game. Come on!" Lita grabbed Rei's wrist with an unmatched strength and started off towards the teleporter.

"Let me GO!" Rei rebelled as she tried to unleash herself once more.

"I can't leave without him. I can't!" She yelled through tears as she scanned the area around her, but Lita was running too fast and Rei's blow to the head had given her a small concussion and all she could see now was the long, endless blur of lifeless bodies lying in the craters of the Moon.

"Don't move from here!" She commanded of Rei as she spotted Darien running with Mercury in his arms.

"Darien put me down!" Ami demanded as she prepped herself for an ice attack. Darien immediately helped her to stand and hid behind her as she unleashed a monstrous force of icicles flying through the air and impaling the bodies of the evil henchmen.

"Mercury bubbles blast!" She screamed with the last ounce of her energy as a thick fog oozed over them like a blanket of snow.

"We have to go, now!" Darien yelled as he touched Ami's wrist and sent her flying through the air.

"Lita, give me your hand!" He yelled as he ran and touched the green senshi.

"See you soon Darien." She said as she was engulfed by the bubble and sent straight up into the air.

"Rei… REI!" Darien yelled as he looked around. "Rei where are you? I can't see through this damn fog!" He dropped to his knees and searched the ground blindly for her thin frame.

"Chad, don't go. Chad!" Rei's scream pierced through the fog, a red light glowing from her body as she knelt over a body and stared at Chad's scruffy face.

"You can't leave me! You promised! Chad! Don't you remember? We were going to be together no matter what! We were going to run away to a place where my status did not matter. Damn it! How could you leave me? How could you be so selfish!" Her eyes overflowed with tears as she collapsed onto Chad's body and kissed his bloody head.

"No, you can't be dead. I won't let you be dead! Chad!" She screamed frantically as she held his cold, limp hand in hers. The once white silk gloves were now torn to shreds and covered in moon dust and dried blood.

"Rei, let's go!" Darien screamed as he grabbed Rei's wrist.

"I can't leave him. Darien let me go!" She ordered as she began to kick Darien but it was too late. Her body's glow left her and Chad's hand slipped slowly out of hers.

"No! I hate you!" Her body began to become lifeless as the bubble grew around her.

"I hate you." She mumbled under her breath as her eyes began to close.

"Let's go." Prince Darien commanded as he closed his eyes and prepared to join his princess in the sky.

"Serena, wait for me my love." He whispered as his body crouched and folded in on itself and he was sent off to the sky to join his sleeping beauty. Rei's body had already become limp and crouched but her eyes refused to shut. She was hanging on to the sight of her faithful knight as long as she could. Finally, her body couldn't handle it anymore and her eyes began to shut themselves.

"Chad?" She mumbled groggily as she saw, through the slits of her rapidly closing eyes, the silhouette of a scruffy-faced soldier moving and desperately reaching out for her hand.

"Ch… Ch…" She was out. The five capsules of the three senshi and of the two royals hovered in the air until Rei joined them. In an instant, they shot through the atmosphere and navigated full speed with Earth as their destination. In a mere second, the scouts and the two lovers were flying through space, leaving behind the wasteland that had become the Moon Kingdom, and the fallen soldier of the red planet.

"CHAD!" Rei screamed as she awakened. She looked next to her and saw an empty bed.

"Chad!" The scream pierced through the house, awakening Serena. Chad ran into the room, followed closely by Lita, Ami and the two cats.

"Rei are you all right? Did you have a bad dream?" He asked as he sat next to her on the bed. Rei's chest rose and collapsed almost incessantly as beads of sweat dripped from her face and into her bosom.

"It wasn't a nightmare. I know who you are." She said as she lifted the dripping bangs off her face. The girls and the cats just looked at Rei with concern as she controlled her breathing and prepared to tell her story.


	16. Serena's Birthday Surprise

The girls stood in shock after Rei's tale.

"Aw, come on Rei, you don't really believe all that happened right?" Lita asked.

"Lita is right Rei." Ami interrupted. "I don't think the battle on the Moon was so violent. From what Luna tells us, the battle was rather short for us. Queen Serenity brought us here before any of us could get hurt. She wanted us to protect Serena in case Beryl came to Earth looking for her and for the Imperial Silver Crystal."

Rei looked at them all with an angry face. How could they not believe her? Wasn't she the one that always got Serena out of jams mid-battle? Wasn't she the trusted senshi of intuition? Why did this dream not matter for them? Why did they think her intuition was suddenly failing and becoming nothing more than a meaningless nightmare?

"Rei, we're all a bit stressed." Mina said as she sat on the edge of the bed and pet Rei's hair. "We just need to rest, that's all." She smiled sweetly at Rei, her face filled with preoccupation for her raven-haired friend.

"We need to get out of here is what we need to do." Lita said as she put her hand on her hip and blew her bangs out of her face.

"I agree." Artemis nodded.

"Yes, it does seem that you girls need a break." Luna stepped down from the bed and looked up at the girls.

"Maybe we could take a little road trip somewhere?" Mina's eyes sparkled like diamonds. "We could pay a visit to a botanical garden," Her facial expressions now soft and dreamy.

"Or! Or we could go hiking up a mountain trail!" Lita's face lit up with excitement.

"I know, we could go to that new museum that opened just a few hours from here. I hear they have an excellent display on the vascular system!" Ami announced with glee. The other girls sweat dropped and looked at Ami with a disgruntled face.

"Or not." Ami said with an embarrassed smile.

"I know where we can go!" A singsong voice echoed from behind the crowd. Serena had been standing behind Lita.

"Lita move!" She commanded as she tried to stumble her way in front of her tall friend.

"Oh jeez, here comes clutz-zilla!" Rei chuckled as she rolled her eyes.

"Hey! I heard that!" Serena yelled with her fist in front of Rei's face.

"Let's hear your idea Serena." Mina encouraged.

"Well." She cleared her throat. "I was just thinking that all those places you guys want to go to are really far away. I mean, Ami's museum is a few hours away and Lita's mountain hike is going to take us until tomorrow at sunset to complete!"

"Well, what about Mina's idea for the botanical garden?" Lita asked. "That sounds pretty classy."

Serena gave Lita an annoyed face. "Well, I'm allergic to flowers!"

"Not when Darien brings them over for you in a bouquet!" Rei complained.

"Well, that is different." Serena replied as she crossed her arms and raised her nose high in the air. "I'm allergic to them when they are on the plants themselves."

"Serena that is ridiculous!" Rei yelled, a few hairs standing up from her head.

"It is NOT!" Serena yelled right back. The peaceful discussion had suddenly turned into a verbal fight between Serena and Rei. Words were yelled at incredible speeds as Mina and Lita joined in.

"Serena! You are not allergic to flowers! You are just afraid of getting bugs on you!" Rei accused.

"I am NOT!" Serena yelled in an appalled manner. "Flowers are just… stupid!" She yelled.

"No way! Flowers are great!" Mina bellowed as her face began to steam up.

"Actually Mina," Lita began. "Flowers are a bit lame."

"See? Lita agrees!" Serena yelled joyfully as she pointed at Lita and jumped up and down in her victory.

"… A hiking trail is a lot more exciting."

"Aw!" Serena mumbled at the thought of any form of physical exercise.

"You see? You are just a lazy bum!" Rei accused once more.

"Me lazy? Who's still in bed?" She pointed her shaky finger at Rei's face.

"I still think the museum is the best idea." Ami muttered beneath the loud uproar. The girls all stopped bickering and turned their steamed faces at her.

"Ami!" They all yelled in unison. Ami's face was taken over by fear as she slowly stepped out of the room.

"Well." Luna began speaking, not giving the girls time to start bickering again. "Since you ladies can't come to a decision, I guess we'll just have to go to Serena's house and discuss a plan of action to defeat our enemies." She walked out slowly, her upper right fang sticking out of her mouth slightly as she curled her lips into a smile.

"Wait! You didn't even hear my idea!" Serena whined. "See, there is this all you can eat buffet that just opened." She lowered her head and began pushing her pointer fingers against one another.

"SERENA!" the girls all yelled as they began to attack her with pillows. "Hey no fair! Three against one! Chad! Help me!" She squealed.

"Actually, I think I'll sit this one out if that's all right with you." He quickly exited the room.

"Unbelievable." Artemis said as he followed Chad out, a white feather between his ears. "When are they going to grow up?" He asked.

"Who knows?" Luna answered.

"Ready to call them out?" Artemis asked with a chuckle.

Luna sighed. "If we must." She cleared her throat and gave out a loud meow and an even louder hiss. The girls froze. Mina had just finished smacking Lita with a pillow, causing her to lose her balance and fall onto the bed. Lita, in turn, had picked up another pillow and was kneeling on the bed, ready to strike Mina. Serena, being the whiny child that she was, had tried to crawl out of the bawl with no success. Her eyes were filled with tears as Rei pulled on her odangos mercilessly.

"For heaven's sake!" Luna yelled. "Let's go, all of you." She walked towards the couch where she grabbed an item in her mouth and offered it to Serena.

"What's this?" She asked as she stood up and brushed herself off.

"The Luna pen." Artemis replied. "Use it to create a disguise so you won't be walking around in your underwear."

"Oh, right." Serena said as Ami entered the room and closed the door. A flash of pink light emerged from under the door.

"Good thinking guys." Lita said as she opened the door. Artemis smiled as he noted the jean shorts she sported along with a brown T-shirt. Mina came out soon after. She wore a strapless orange shirt with a short, white miniskirt.

"What do you think Artemis?" Mina asked as she twirled for him.

"You look great!" He exclaimed as he jumped into her arms and licked her cheek.

Ami came out in a cute yellow sundress with matching hat. They all stood around and waited for Rei and Serena who were most likely still bickering inside. Amazingly enough they both came out at the same time. Their faces were facing opposite directions as they both "hmphed" each other.

"Well, that's that." Serena said as she dusted off her dressy, black miniskirt and tied up the criss-cross pattern on the neck of her lime green dress shirt.

"Right." Rei said as she strutted past Serena and towards the door in her thigh-length white dress with long red sleeves. "Ready to go everyone?" Rei asked. Every one nodded and one by one they exited the Mizuno establishment. The bus ride to Serena's house was spent in silence. Mina and Serena sat next to each other playing thumb wars while Lita and Ami sat awkwardly in silence behind them. They each looked separate ways.

"Hey Luna, do you notice anything weird about those two?" Artemis asked.

"Not really. Ami is always silent and I guess Lita just isn't in the mood to strike a conversation." She replied as she looked out the window at the streets.

"Driver, please stop!" Rei yelled from the back as she got up and held onto Lita's seat. Chad got up and stood behind her.

"Where are you going Rei?" Ami asked as she looked out the window, wondering if they had already reached Serena's house.

"To the temple, come on get up." Rei demanded as the bus driver pulled over.

"Wait, what is going on?" Lita asked a bit lost.

"We have business to take care of, remember Lita?" Rei sounded every word.

"Business?" Lita asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Oh, BUSINESS!" Ami said excitedly as she hopped over Lita's legs and waited until the bus had stopped to disembark. Lita still looked confused.

"Oh just get off the bus!" Rei said angrily as she lifted Lita off her seat and pushed her forward.

"You too." She said as she grabbed Mina's hand and pulled her onto her feet.

"Wait, where's everyone going?" Serena asked with a pouting face. "You're all leaving me. GUYS! What is going on?" She began to stand.

"You, stay!" Rei said angrily as she began to get off the bus.

"Rei! What are you guys hiding from me?" Serena whined as she threw herself on the floor and grabbed a hold of Rei's ankles.

"Serena get off!" Rei demanded as she shook her leg. Lita grabbed Rei's arms and tried pulling her off the bus but Serena had a strong grip on her ankles.

"Let me go!" Rei yelled frantically as she growled and kicked her feet.

"Guys!" Serena cried as her clammy hands slid off Rei's flesh and she was hurled back in the bus, landing on the lap of the bus driver.

"Ew!" She said as she jumped off his lap.

"Wait!" She yelled as she tried to climb down the steps of the bus. "Where are you…?" She was cut off as she slammed her face into the closed doors of the bus.

"Wait, no! Open this door!" She stomped her foot at the driver. "Open it now," Her face now red with frustration. The bus driver ignored her and moved the bus away from the curve.

"Let me out!" She yelled as she pounded on the door. The faces of her friends were soon out of view. A pair of cats rubbed themselves on her legs.

"Guys not now!" Her eyes were filled to the brim with tears.

"That was hard." Mina said sadly as she watched the bus drive away with Serena's face slammed against the rear window.

"She looks kinda funny don't you think?" Lita smirked.

"Yea, let's go." Rei said as she turned her back to the bus and began heading towards the dojo. "Do any of you remember where we left the stuff?" Rei asked as she jogged her memory.

Mina and Lita sweat dropped.

"I remember." Ami said simply as she walked ahead of the pack and lead them to a small backhouse behind the temple where Rei's grandpa stored decorations for the temple.

"I believe everything is in here." Ami concluded as she opened the door and began to rummage under large rolls of colorful paper.

"Found it!" She said as she pulled out large packages wrapped in pastel-colored wrapping paper.

"There turned out great!" Mina exclaimed as she patted Lita on the back. "Great wrapping job!" She said as she grabbed two large packages from Ami and began hauling them inside the dojo.

"Here, let me get a few." Chad said as he filled his arms with heavy bags and waddled over after Mina. There was a painful silence after his exit. All eyes were on Rei.

"So," Lita began as she cleared her throat. "How did you sleep last night?"

"I had a nightmare, so, I imagine it wasn't very good." She replied as she got down on her knees and dug through bags of bells.

"That's a shame." Lita said as she lifted two more wrapped packages. "Your first time should always be good." With that, she walked off in a light job after Chad who was holding the sliding doors open.

"Wait, what is she talking about?" Rei asked Ami in a light panic.

"How should I know?" Ami shrugged and smiled as she handed Rei a few rolls of paper mache. "Are they too heavy?" She asked, switching topics.

"No, not at all." Rei muttered as she carried the rolls inside.

"Oh dear, this is going to be a crazy day." She said as she picked up a few bags of deflated balloons and headed on inside. She took off her shoes and stepped into the kitchen.

"How are we going to start this?"

"Quickly." Lita replied. "If I know Serena, she's going to catch the first bus back here. We have two hours tops."

"Well then, let's hurry!" Mina said eagerly as she opened the bags Chad had brought in and began pulling out a bunny-shaped piñata.

"Whoa, are you sure that's a good idea?" Lita asked Mina. "You can't trust Serena with a heavy stick. Remember what happened last year?"

"Oh come on Lita, nothing happened." Mina laughed as she rolled her eyes and began pulling the strings to the bunny.

"Yea, you don't remember because she hit you in the head and you were out cold for about four hours."

"Lita, come on." Mina laughed as she went outside with the piñata.

"She really doesn't remember does she?" Ami asked, baffled.

"Well, Serena has a really mean swing." Lita laughed as Ami covered her mouth in shock. "Let's go, help me carry the presents."

"All right." She grabbed as many boxes as she could carry and followed Lita to the backyard, leaving Chad and Rei alone in the kitchen.

"Right, um." Chad began foraging through the refrigerator, looking for the large trays of food that Lita had brought in the day before. Rei busied herself by looking through cupboards for the sodas that Mina had dropped off.

"I found the plates!" Lita yelled from the yard.

"And I have acquired the cups and utensils." Ami replied.

"Thanks guys!" Rei yelled out the door. She turned and bumped into Chad. "Oh, sorry, my fault."

"Hey, where are you going?" He asked as he pulled her back by the arm. "Don't tell me things are going to get weird between us now." Rei said nothing. "Do you regret what happened last night?" He asked with a furrowed brow. She shook her head.

"No, of course not." She rested her head on his chest. "It just feels a little weird."

"Was it something I said?" He asked.

"No, it doesn't feel weird between us." She said in a low voice. "I just feel weird in here." She placed her hand on her lower abdomen. Chad's face went blank.

"You mean you are… …?"

"No Chad, don't jinx me like that!" Rei said as she slapped his arm with a dishwashing cloth. "I'm not… pregnant." She whispered. His muscles relaxed and he sighed in relief.

"Then what's wrong?"

"I'm a little, sore." She said with a blush. Chad smiled a proud smile.

"What are you sore from Rei?" Grandpa asked as he entered the kitchen with his arms behind his back.

She quickly removed her head from Chad's chest.

"Nothing Grandpa." She said rapidly.

"Sensei, we were just moving Serena's presents outside and Rei found them a bit heavy."

"Is that so?" Grandpa asked with beady eyes as he walked in circles around Chad and Rei.

"You two are looking rather cozy lately." He said, as he looked Rei straight in the eye.

"What are you talking about you crazy old man?" Rei asked uncomfortably.

"Where were you last night?" He asked both of them.

"I was with Serena and the girls last night." Rei answered coolly.

"I was out and about, I needed to clear my head." Chad said as he bowed.

"Do you both take me for a fool?" Grandpa asked as he looked at them both.

"No Sensei."

"No Grandpa."

"Then why don't you just tell me the truth?" He smiled. "I know what you two were doing last night." A big grin was slowly crawling up his face.

"You do?" Chad gulped as his voice cracked.

"I do." Grandpa said as he pat Chad on the back. "You were doing it with Rei."

Both their eyes opened in shock.

"Sensei, I can explain."

"Grandpa I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to disappoint you. I know you have real high standards for things like this." Rei began to bawl.

"Nonsense!" He yelled, silencing the room. Mina and Lita were walking in when they heard Grandpa yell. They slowly tip toed back into the yard. Grandpa softened his face.

"Nonsense. Chad, I know I told you to be respectful to me and my granddaughter and my dojo. And I know that you respect the three of us very much. That is why I am not going to get angry with you for practicing karate with Rei behind my back."

Chad and Rei arched an eyebrow in confusion.

"I'm sorry Rei. Sometimes I think of you as a little girl, but I have to understand that you are a young woman now, and young women need to defend themselves as well." He held Rei's hand. "Chad, it is okay. If you feel that you must share our sacred art with Rei, I will not stand in your way. However, if you so much as harm a hair on her head…" He grabbed Chad's arm and twisted it with little effort but enough to make Chad go down on one knee and see Grandpa in the eye. "I will have no other choice than to kill you." He said with threatening eyes.

"R… right Sensei." Chad bowed his head in respect.

"Well then! Where is the cake?" He asked in a jolly voice as he looked outside where he spotted Mina and Lita in their short skirt and short.

"Hey girls!" He called out as he ran outside after them. "Save some room for dessert!"

Chad looked outside to make sure Sensei wasn't snooping in.

"We seem to have a knack for throwing him off track, don't you think?"  
Rei just smiled and handed Chad the cake.

"Let's go, we don't have time to waste."

The girls worked hard trying to set up the backyard before Serena made her appearance. Mina and Ami worked together setting up the streamers and the colorful banner that read "Happy Birthday Meatball Head!" Lita took care of warming the food and laying out the presents while Rei got out the utensils and birthday candles. By the end of the hour, Rei's backyard seemed like a dream in pink. A long picnic table had been laid out and covered by a long, hot pink tablecloth. On it was Lita's feast.

"Looks like you catered a wedding!" Mina laughed.

"No, I just cooked for Serena." Lita joked.

"Guys let's go!" Rei commanded. "She's going to be here any second!" They all ran around like headless chickens while Chad held Grandpa and stopped him from drooling all over the food. The finishing touches were added. The piñata was hung from Grandpa's fortune tree and the cold beverages were set out in a cooler.

"I think we are ready." Ami said gleefully.

"Now what?" Lita asked impatiently.

"Now we sit and wait." Mina said calmly as she took a seat. Time crawled by. It seemed that they had been waiting for Serena for hours.

"How long has it been?" Mina asked.

"Only eight minutes." Ami said as she stared at her digital watch.

"I hear some one." Chad announced. The girls were silent. Sure enough, a car had stopped in front of the Hino temple. The girls all hid behind the picnic table and giggled silently. Chad and Grandpa fought for a spot behind the fortune telling tree. Two sets of footsteps approached. One set took long, spaced strides while the other took short, frequent steps.

"Now!" Mina whispered.

"SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTH…" They stopped abruptly.

"Darien?" Lita asked as she laughed.

"I guess I'm not late after all." He said with a sweat drop as he handed Lita a bright purple present to add to the pile.

"Nope, right on time." Lita said as she waved to Rini. "Do you know where Serena is?"

Rini nodded. "She's on her way. She should be here any second now. We passed her on our way here."

"Here she comes!" Chad yelled while running to his hiding place. Rini threw a silver-wrapped present to the side and ran to hide with the rest of the girls.

"REI!" Serena growled as she stomped up the steps to the temple.

"Guys? I know you're here!" She yelled as she entered the dojo.

"Where are you?" She asked as she snuck around room by room in her stealthy ninja suit.

"You can't hide from me! I know your every move." Slowly, she snuck around Chad's room, then Grandpa's and finally Rei's.

"Nothing." She said disappointedly. She swiftly jumped behind couches and crawled underneath tables as she made her way to the kitchen where she found an open door.

"A-ha!" She exclaimed, overflowing with confidence. "You can't hide from me. Don't even bother running with your tails between your legs. I will find you. I am the great pink ninja and NOTHING can take me by surprise!" With one quick leap she burst through the doors and into the garden.

"Huh?" She asked as she noticed Rei's very pink yard.

"SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" The girls all shouted and yelled from behind the table.

"You guys!" Serena screamed loudly as she jumped up and down clapping her hands. The guys came out from behind the tree.

"Darien!" Serena yelled as she ran to him and embraced him tightly.

"Happy Birthday!" He said with a smile as he returned her hug.

Serena took a good look around her. Everything seemed so great! There were streamers of colors being stroked by the wind, presents of all shapes, sizes and colors, and above all, great food!

"Oh wow this all looks good!" Serena yelled as she dove towards the picnic table and began to chow down the prepared food.

"Not even one minute and she's already chomping away." Lita chuckled.

"Serena, you are such a pig!" Rini and Rei both yelled.

"Come on guys, I didn't have breakfast!" Serena mumbled through bites of food.

"Can you at least come and cut the cake?" Mina asked with a knife in hand.

"Yes, Serena, please." Ami pleaded.

"All right all right." She got up and stood in front of the large, 3 layered cake. "This looks yummy!" She said with an ear-to-ear grin.

"I worked really hard on it." Lita said. "It took me hours to bake."

"And even longer for me to ice." Ami said as she examined the cake, making sure every frosted flower was as even as the next.

"Come on, make a wish!" Mina exclaimed as she smacked Serena in the back, signaling for her to hurry.

"Okay, I'm going!" She straightened out her lime shirt and closed her eyes. She looked rather funny with her mouth covered in food stains, but it almost seemed that time had stopped at that moment. All that mattered was that wish.

I wish that Darien and I stayed together forever. I wish that we can both be faithful and open towards one another and that we will be in love with each other until the day we die. I also wish that I might keep my friends by my side for as long as I live. I couldn't ask for better friends and teammates even if I tried. I wish them all the best, now and forever.

"Will you hurry it up? The candles are going to drip over!" Rei grumbled.

"I have a lot to wish for!"

"Serena, you only get ONE wish! This isn't a magic lamp! It is a birthday cake! Now just blow the candles will you?" Rei yelled as she pushed Serena's face close to the flames.

"Rei!" She yelled in protest as she blew out the candles.

"Finally, I thought I was going to grow old!" Ami snickered.

"Very funny Ami!" Serena complained with an annoyed pout.

"Let's eat!" Rini yelled out.

"Ooh! I second that request!" Serena squealed as she threw her hand up in the air. They all sat at the table and devoured Lita's meal. Upon finishing, Chad passed out slices of cake. Serena ate three.

"Where do you keep it all?" Mina asked perplexedly.

"Right here." Serena pointed to her bloated belly. The girls all laughed.

"Now it is time to open some presents!" Grandpa announced jollily as he handed Serena his present.

"Thank you!" She said with a smile as she tore open the wrapping paper.

"What is this?" Serena asked, knowing exactly what it was.

"Your very own ninja suit. I sewed it myself. Now you can sneak around in style!" Grandpa laughed.

"Hey! I do not sneak around!" Serena yelled as she stealthily hid the suit under the table so no one would notice it.

"Mine next!" Mina squealed as she threw Serena her present. Serena opened it in a haste, tearing through the yellow and green wrapping.

"Mina!" she gasped as she pulled out a sleek black bikini. "It is gorgeous!" She said as she checked the sizes to make sure it would fit. And so the time rolled by. One present after another, Serena screamed with joy. Her gifts ranged from brand new schoolbooks from Ami and meditation candles and incense from Rei, to a "one-time-ticket" from Lita for a free meal paid by her. As she laughed at Lita's presents and threatened to raid her fridge, Darien brought out his present along with Rini's.

"Open Rini's first."

She mumbled as she struggled to break through the silver wrapping.

"You did a great wrapping job Rini." She grumbled as she bit the wrapping and tore it off.

"Is this really for me?" She asked with watery eyes. Rini nodded. Inside the brown box lay a pair of white sneakers that Serena had been staring at for months. Rini had done chores around the house for over three months to raise enough money to buy them. Inside was also a hand-made card. It had Serena, Darien, and Rini on the cover. Serena and Rini were fighting while Darien stood idly with a frightened face. She opened the card. It read, "even though we fight all the time, and even though you get on my nerves when you're a loud fat-head, you're still the best mom I could ever have." Serena's eyes swelled with tears.

"Let me go!" Rini protested as Serena moved in for a hug. "Serena, I can't breathe!" She growled as she pulled on her mother's odangos.

"That's not nice Rini!" She squealed in pain as the company laughed. Once the hysterics died down, it was time for Darien's present; the one Serena had been waiting for. She opened it slowly and carefully, as if to not shred the wrapper. She removed a long box filled with red roses and a note. She smiled as she read the note. "Tonight, you are mine." She said out loud.

"What is it Darien?"

He pulled out a key. "A friend from work let me rent his beach house for two days starting tonight. We can walk on the beach when the moon is out. There is also a nice restaurant nearby and I reserved two seats for tonight." He smiled and kissed her forehead. "Happy Birthday Serena."

The blonde was in shock. She finally had the chance to spend some alone time with the guy she loved. And now that she was eighteen, there was nothing her mother could say about it, not that she would care either way.

"Thank you Darien." Was all she could muster as she sniffed the roses.

"Well then," Lita said as she clapped her hands, "who's up for the piñata?"

"Piñata?" Serena asked, popping her head up like a prairie dog. Ami pointed to the bunny piñata hanging from the tree.

"Ooh!" She got up and dropped all the presents. In a swift leap she had the heavy stick in her hand and was putting the blindfold on herself.

"Mina, you might want to move back a bit, we don't want a repeat of last year!" She called out in no particular direction.

"What are you talking about?" Mina asked almost enraged.

"Poor thing." Ami said simply as she stared at Serena.

"Every one, take a step back." Chad said almost frantically as Serena began to swing at everything in sight. She knocked over a paper lantern, a pitcher of water, and broke a few branches on the tree before she finally struck the piñata. With one quick blow the piñata was burst open and all sorts of chocolate pieces flew in the air. Serena immediately dropped the stick, removed the blindfold, and threw herself on the floor, trying to gather every last piece of candy. Every one just stared at her, not even Rini wanted to compete against Serena for a piece of chocolate, it just wasn't worth the pain and aggravation.

"Guys, thank you all so much. I knew you were planning something!" Serena said through mouthfuls of chocolate. Chad and Grandpa snuck out silently for an evening spar. The afternoon flew by as the girls all played various games and shared various funny stories. When the clock struck six, Darien called Serena over from his car. It was time to embark on their secret vacation at the beach. Serena's face grew serious with worry as she put down a piece of cake and stood up from the table.

"Well guys, I guess this is it. I better go now." She said with a furrowed brow.

"Oh Serena, you are so dramatic! You aren't going away forever! We'll see each other in a few days! Everything is going to be fine, I promise." Rei said as she hugged Serena and gently rubbed her back. The girls all took turns in showing their affection for the birthday girl.

"We'll be here when you get back." Lita said.

"Nothing is going to change in two days." Mina laughed. "We'll stop chaos from ruling over the city." She snickered.

"It will be all right Serena. We will be safe and sound when you get back. Now go, have fun!" Ami said with a kind face.

"Don't do anything your mom wouldn't let you do!" Rini yelled with a menacing face. She did not like the idea of Serena spending time alone with Darien. At that comment, Serena's face grew pale. She forced a weak smile, gathered her presents and walked towards Darien's car.

"What's her problem?" Rei asked angrily.

"She knows." Mina said with a mature look on her face.

"What?" Rei asked.

"That it is going to happen, she knows." Lita said as she waved the couple off. Rini looked up at Lita with a puzzled look.

"What is going to happen guys?" Rei asked as she played the naïve card.

"You know exactly what we're talking about." Mina said as Ami walked away with a blush. "IT is going to happen tonight." She mouthed the words so Rini could not hear.

"Everyone is nervous their first time. They worry about messing it up, about not being good enough, about it not being the right time…" Mina's voice drifted off. Rei still looked puzzled even though her heart was beating a mile a minute.

"Oh don't give me that face." Lita said as she smacked Rei in the back of her head. "That's the look every girl has before she loses it." She looked at Rei. "It is the same look I had when Alan visited me on that winter afternoon. The same look you had last night before you gave yourself… to Chad."

Rei smiled with a blush.

"You knew?"

"Of course we knew!" Mina said as she covered Rini's ears. "We're not blind."

"Or deaf!" Ami yelled from the distance as she picked up the dirty plates and threw them in a black bag.

"It's okay, no need to be ashamed." Lita said as she and Mina walked over and helped Ami pick up the garbage. Rei stood silent.

"Do you guys need help?" Chad asked as he walked out of the dojo and offered to clear off the table with the girls.

"Thank you." Ami said as she handed Chad a garbage bag. An awkward silence took over the garden as the crickets began to sing their evening song.

"Is something wrong?" Chad asked as he noticed all the girls smiling and Rei blushing.

"They know." She said without looking at him.

"Know about what?" He asked innocently. Lita stood behind Mina, who was bending over the table, and began to slowly thrust into her rear. Chad's face was flushed.

"It's okay, it happens." Lita said as she threw the empty piñata at Chad. "I'm just warning you, we're not going to let Rei sleep until she tells us all the details." With that, they all went inside to cool off after their hard work.

"Darien?" Serena asked as the wind zipped through her blond locks.

"Hmm?" Darien asked as he focused on the dark road ahead.

"I love you." She said as she leaned in and tenderly placed her head on his shoulder. Darien smiled and held her hand tightly in his.

"I know the feeling." He whispered as he kissed her head and continued to drive into the sunset.


	17. Nightmare Senshi

I know I've changed the format throughout the fic quite a bit, but I was just trying to test different things out and taking in the input you guys left me in your reviews. So, in light of that, anything in _Italics_ is going to mean thought, a dream or a flashback. I'll try and be obvious about which I'm referring to. I'm also getting rid of the asterisks meaning action. Looking back at this fic which I started 5 years ago . my writing has grown a lot and now I'll just convey actions using words. That is all. You may now bash me with rocks for not posting in over a year.

"What now?" Asked Mina as she sat down on the grass, not caring if her white skirt got dirty.

Rei wiped her brow and sat next to her, folding the skirt of her dress under her as she sat. "Peace." She giggled and rested her head back on the fortune tree.

"Aw, come on guys. We can't just sit around and do nothing just because Serena's gone." Lita said as she rested one foot on the bench and tied her shoes.

"Where's Ami?" Rei asked as she yawned.

"Inside," Lita replied as she double knotted her sneakers and sat on the bench, legs spread and sighed. "You know how she has to have everything perfectly in order." She too yawned. The day had taken a lot out of the already fatigued senshi and as nightfall came about, they found themselves sleepy and drained.

"I vote we nap." Mina suggested as she stretched, arching her back and smiling. She looked around, with some confusion. "Hey, didn't Luna and Artemis show up for the party?"

"No, I guess they missed it." Lita said as she scratched her head.

"Serena probably locked them in a room because they helped us keep her on that bus." Rei laughed loudly and put her hands on her hips. "I'm going inside, I'm wiped."

"Right behind ya." Lita replied as she forced herself to stand and helped Mina off the ground.

"I'm looking forward to my nice, warm sleeping bag and pillow." Mina sighed and smiled almost deliriously as she staggered in behind Rei.

Lita was last to enter the dojo. As she tightly held a crumpled ball of wrapping paper, she couldn't help but feel that something was off. She almost felt like she was being watched but, by whom, she did not know.

"Shut the door tightly when you come in." Rei hollered from inside the kitchen.

"Yeah..." Lita mumbled under her breath, as if trying to silently stalk her predator by remaining silent. She waited a few minutes until the heavy feeling in her chest left before entering Rei's kitchen and slamming the door shut. She looked out the kitchen window, just in case, and met the heavy stares of Deimos and Phobos. A hand touched Lita's shoulder and she jumped, grabbing the person's wrist and turning around sharply and defensively.

"It's just me, calm down." Rei said as Lita let go of her wrist and she rubbed it. "Are you all right? You seem tense."

"Fine, it's just that I feel like something's off." She looked back out the window. "Do those birds always stare in like that?" She asked, without taking her eyes off them.

"Phobos and Deimos? Yeah, they stare." Rei replied. "Sometimes they seem almost human, don't they?"

"A bit too human." Lita eyed them suspiciously before walking away into the long hallway that led to Rei's room.

Staring affectionately at her crows, Rei smiled and closed the kitchen window. If Lita felt something was wrong, aside from the persistent stares of the birds, she didn't want to take any chances. "Goodnight." She locked the windows and walked away, shutting the lights as she approached her room. Everything was silent except for the great fire burning just a few rooms ahead. Grandpa was surely in bed already and Chad... he was probably in bed as well. Passing her room, Rei decided to check. She turned left at the end of her hallway and peeked into his room, he wasn't there. She could hear Grandpa snoring loudly enough...

"Looking for something?" A voice behind her asked. Rei turned around, somewhat spooked.

"Don't do that!" She scolded as she softly smacked Chad on the arm. "I just wanted to see if you were in bed... to say goodnight." She blushed slightly.

Chad looked all around to make sure no one was in sight. "Goodnight?" He asked, smiling as he bent down and kissed her lips briefly, yet tenderly. "Like that?"

She nodded and smiled weakly, eyes still closed from the kiss. "Yes."

Chad slid open the door to his room and walked in, teasingly. "In that case, goodnight." He softly closed his door, took off his pants, and jumped on the bed.

Rei opened her eyes, almost not believing what he had just done. Did he think he would just get away with that?

"Rei?" Ami called out from her room. "Is everything all right?" She asked in a worried voice.

Maybe he'd get away with it tonight, she thought to herself, but any other day, she would have stormed into his room and showed him his rightful place.

"Yeah, I'm coming, just had to check on something." She replied as she started walking back, smirking at Chad's audacity. Her eyes were now set on Ami, who's head was poking out her bedroom door, but immediately popped back into her room upon seeing Rei's figure. She stepped inside.

The floor of her room was littered with the bodies of her friends, sleeping in the sleeping bags they had brought over beforehand for their sleep over. Rei covered her mouth as she yawned and stepped cautiously over the girls and nearly fell into her bed.

"Goodnight, Rei." Ami said as she laid down in her sleeping bag after having taken her sundress off. She had been the only one with enough energy to remove her clothing, Lita and Mina had just crawled inside their sleeping bags and passed out.

"Night, Ami." Rei responded as she too just rested her head on her pillow and was almost instantly asleep.

"Sweet dreams..." a whisper echoed from the window as if having been whispered by the wind itself.

Ami opened her eyes in shock and sat up, her hand by her mouth as she stared around the entire room. She had heard a voice but did not know where it was coming from and it sounded unlike any of the girls' voices. It almost sounded like a child. Her heart began to race as she bravely stood up and walked towards the window, looking out into the open lawn of the dojo, searching for the voice. She heard nothing but silence and the occasional sound of the wind whistling against the open window.

"I'm losing my mind." Ami thought out loud as she reached out and grabbed the ends of the window, closing and locking it. She walked backwards with care to not step on her friends, but never taking her eyes off the suspicious window. Sitting down on the floor, she slowly entered her sleeping bag and kept her eyes on the window until fatigue set in and she too was asleep.

A stifled giggle came from the roof, where Para Para sat, with her legs spread open, wiggling her feet around and tossing a ball in the air.

"Now Para Para knows where to find you!" She said to herself as she rocked her head up and down, following the ball through the air.

"And with your friend gone, it will be all too easy." She stood up silently, making sure not to wake up the girls. With little effort, she climbed atop her ball and hovered over the edge of the roof, where she let the ball roll freely in the air, forcing her to hang upside down from it. She snickered silently as she looked at Rei's sleeping form and then at Ami's.

"Sweet dreams..." she repeated herself... "for now."

She shook her head around as if humming a song and following the beat. The blue orbs at the ends of her hair clanged softly together like a wind chime and she watched as Ami started to move around in her sleep.

"Uh-oh, time to go!" She squealed with delight as she used an Amazon Stone while whispering, "Opening ball!" and returned to Nehellenia's lair.

Ami sat up for the second time and looked around, perplexed. This time, she was sure she had heard a voice.

"Mmm... don't go, stay." Mina mumbled in her sleep as she turned and shifted positions.

Ami held her chest and sighed with relief.

"Calm down, it was just Mina. Don't be so paranoid." Her hands were nearly shaking and her eyes were fixed on the closed window as if it was to blame.

"Just lay down and sleep." She followed her own advice and fell into a deep sleep.

"_Ami!" A young voice echoed in her dreams. "Ami, hurry!" The voice giggled and trailed off._

"_I'm coming, Rini, slow down!" Ami replied, out of breath, as she ran after Rini._

"_Look! Isn't it neat? I've never seen anything like it!" Rini giggled as she poked one of the many frozen lakes of Mercury and ran her finger along the ice, following a fish that was moving under the thick layer._

"_How can he be alive when it's so cold?" Rini asked as she put her cold finger in her mouth and sucked it lightly, giving it warmth._

_Still trying to catch her breath, Princess Ami looked down at the fish and answered._

"_That's just the way his body works. You know how dogs stick out their tongues and pant when it's hot, or how we sweat or shiver depending on the temperature?" Rini nodded, listening intently. _

"_Well those are adaptations to changes in body temperature." Ami tried her best to simplify things for Rini, but her intellect sometimes couldn't allow her to dumb it down anymore._

"_While a nice, lukewarm temperature is what we people prefer best, not all animals prefer that. Lizards tend to like really hot temperatures, and fish like these tend to like cold temperatures. So, while you're all bundled up and shivering, he's swimming around happily as if he were on a beach." She concluded and nodded, satisfied with her actions._

"_Why aren't you cold, Ami?" Rini asked as she looked back at the fish and pointed at him again. _

"_Are you like the fish?" _

_At this, Ami chuckled and nodded._

"_You could say that, Rini." The conversation ended there, but Rini's amusement did not. She trailed her fingers on the ice, trying to get the fish to follow her under the ice and giggled when she succeeded._

_Ami sighed and put a hand to her chest as if comforting herself after catching her breath. It was true that she was like the ice fish, resistant to even the harshest of colds. Even now, as the snow fell lazily over her, she was in her princess gown._

_Rini looked back and blushed. "Ami, you're so pretty. When I grow up I want to be smart and pretty, just like you." She shuffled a foot bashfully on the ground and gazed at Ami's dress. If there was one thing she had always admired, it was fashion and the princess gowns of Mercury just seemed to bedazzle her. _

"_Thank you Rini, what a nice compliment." Ami returned and caught a glimpse of Rini as she stared at her gown._

"_I've had it for years." She commented on the dress as she spun around for Rini to see. Ami fixed the thin straps on her dress and made sure that the gold details on the straps were facing forward._

"_Probably my favorite of them all." She tightened the light blue ribbon that wrapped around her neck, much like a choker, but instead of a knot, was a long, graceful bow at the back of her neck._

_Rini smiled._

"_It's real pretty." Her eyes almost seemed to glisten. "Mine's so weird." She smoothed out a few ruffles on her dress._

"_I feel like a doll in it." The young princess was, of course, referring to the overly-done elegance of Moon Kingdom royals. Everything they did was over the top, including gowns. While Rini was just old enough to talk coherently, she was still just a child and she almost looked like a porcelain doll in her pale pink dress. The shoulders of her dress were clear pink and were in layered stacks while the torso of the gown was a darker pink with a lobed chest cut. She felt like her upper torso resembled a tulip. Meanwhile, the skirt of her dress had numerous ruffles and fancy folds stacked on themselves. They even went as far adding a pearl belt and tiara. She felt so stupid when she was around her mother's senshi. _

_Ami looked down at her and smiled._

"_Don't say that, you look so elegant." She said. Ami was, in fact, a huge fan of simplicity so she was not a big fan of lunar fashion herself. It pained her to see such a young child wearing something so stuffy and restricting, but there was nothing she could do about it._

"_Here, put on your coat before you get cold again." She advised and wrapped Rini up in her thick, white petticoat._

"_Let's get back to the palace before they send out your senshi to look for you."_

_Rini nodded and grabbed onto Ami's hand, faithfully walking back with her._

"_Why do I have my own senshi instead of having you and Rei and Lita and Mina?"_

_Ami chuckled softly, as was her style._

"_We are much too old to defend you, young princess. We've also developed a strong bond with your mother that cannot be broken. But don't fret; your senshi will be just as loyal and caring with you as we are with your mother." Ami reassured Rini as they walked through the icy trails leading to her palace._

_Lately, Rini's mind had been very preoccupied with thoughts about her senshi. She had met them already just a few weeks back. The universe's best, her mother had assured her as these teenage girls walked in, wearing sailor fuku. Rini had held Serena's hand tightly, feeling not frightened, but resentful of the servants that stood before her. She wanted nothing more than to have her friends protecting her, the friends that she had experienced so much with over the years of time travel. But, as her mother had said, and Ami had just reinforced, the other senshi were just too old and already had the duty of protecting her mother. _

_Rini sighed loudly and pouted._

"_I don't like my senshi." She told Ami._

"_Why not? Are they not what you hoped them to be?" Ami looked down but continued walking at a hasty pace._

_Rini shrugged and looked at her surroundings. Every single tree was leafless and had icicles dripping from their branches. Some of them even had bright red berries helplessly frozen inside the tiny ice structures._

"_They're really young and they all seem stupid." She admitted. The senshi that Neo-Queen Serenity had chosen to guard her daughter couldn't be much older than her. They had to be able to guard her through the ages and at the same time, grow with her in order to have things in common and establish a close connection._

"_Especially the one from here." Rini said, referring to Mercury._

"_Really?" Ami asked, almost in shock. The thought of the Mercurial senshi being described as anything short of poised and intelligent, astounded her._

"_Do you know her name?"_

"_Sailor Pallas," Rini mocked in a childish voice. _

"_Mom says she isn't from Mercury, she's from some asteroid, they all are." She eyed the large walls of the castle as the rose up the front stairs slowly._

"_But she's the one that is like you. She wears the blue." Rini stopped walking and held Ami's hand tightly._

"_That's her!" She whispered loudly as the doors to the palace closed behind them, making a loud banging sound that vibrated through the floor beneath their feet and announced their entrance. Rini hid herself behind Ami and held onto the back of her dress._

_In front of them stood four young girls, not a day over 12, in sailor scout outfits. They looked impatient as if they had been standing in the main hall of the palace for a while, waiting to catch their prey as it entered through the main doors. _

"_We're here to collect Princess Rini," Sailor Ceres said as she stepped forward, her pink uniform shaking ever so slightly. Her smooth, almost seductive young voice rolled off her tongue like a song. She smoothed over her dark blue chest bow and waited._

_Ami took a chance to look over the new senshi chosen to guard the Moon Kingdom after she and her friends had either become useless or had passed on. She eyed every single one of them from head to toe. They seemed so eccentric compared to her generation of senshi. Their hairs were up in intricate designs; one even had a hairstyle that resembled a scorpion's stinger. Ami gasped. Another scout stepped forward._

"_We know you're there." Sailor Juno said in a harsh voice. "Let's just get back to the palace already." She had a stiff posture, almost masculine in nature, like Lita's. It didn't help that she was wearing a lime green scout outfit, similar to Lita's except Juno's was more vibrant and her bow was blood red. _

"_What's the rush?" Ami asked valiantly. "Rini spends much of her time here with me, her mother is well aware of her whereabouts."_

_The green senshi sighed, looking almost annoyed. Her scorpion-like hairdo seemed almost threatening to Ami. She couldn't understand how Serena could have picked these young girls to protect the young princess._

"_Neo-Queen Serenity has asked us to bring her back when we found her. It seems the young princess has forgotten an event." The loud and demanding voice of the red senshi, Vesta, boomed. Her one hand was tightly fixed on her hip while the other hung loosely at her side. She, like the green senshi, had a thick hairdo that seemed to defy gravity._

_Ami reached back and held Rini still with both hands in an attempt to reassure her._

"_Yes! And after the event, Sailor Pallas will play with Princess Rini!" The blue senshi skipped over to Ami and pried Rini out from her hiding spot._

"_Pallas loves the young princess!" She grabbed Rini's cheeks and pinched them tenderly as she shook her head and baby talked to her. As she did so, the blue orbs hanging down from her hair, clang together and made music similar to that of a wind chime._

_Ami was in complete disbelief that this was the girl that Serena had chosen to replace her. This babbling idiot that didn't even have half a brain and spoke in the third person? The thought was almost insulting and she felt infuriated. While these new senshi had some of the qualities that she and the current senshi shared, they were nothing like them. Sure the red senshi was demanding and the green senshi was masculine while the ... pink? ... senshi was feminine and the blue one was nurturing, but, overall, these budding young girls seemed to have extreme looks and personalities that would never coincide with that of Rini's! She wanted nothing more than to take Rini to the moon herself, but she was so drained after spending the entire day with the young girl, that the only thing that sounded good was a nap._

"_Ami!" Rini barked in protest to Pallas' constant touching._

"_Ami do something!" She whined._

_Ami bent down to Rini's eye level and smiled as she grabbed both her hands and focused Rini's attention on herself, instead of on Pallas'._

"_Rini, I'm very tired and I need a nap." Rini immediately interrupted her with a sharp whine that threatened to become a bout of crying._

"_Wait, no, listen to me." Ami continued, forcing Rini to stare into her soft eyes._

"_I promise you that after my nap I will personally go to your mother and try to find a... different arrangement than this." Rini knew she was talking about the new senshi. She knew she could always count on Ami to solve her problems._

_Rini smiled contently with her pink cheeks._

"_Deal!" She shook Ami's hand and began to walk towards Sailor Vesta, who was tapping her foot impatiently on the floor._

_Ami felt all too uncomfortable with these new girls. Everything seemed wrong about them. Their skirts were too short, their chest bows too stiff and pointy, their hair... goodness that HAIR! And those hideous personalities to boot! Ami sighed and bit her lip, shaking her head slightly as she watched Vesta, Juno and Ceres all put their hands on Rini's back and guided her to the teleporter. The pink princess seemed almost hesitant and helpless, but, nevertheless, she smiled and waved at Ami before disappearing into the teleporter. Letting out a shaky breath, Ami turned to her side in order to head to her quarters, but instead, bumped into Sailor Pallas. She shrieked from the shock. Part of her was scared of these new senshi and she didn't know why._

"_I'm sorry." Ami tried to steady her breath by placing her hand on her chest. _

_Pallas' expression was devious and almost predatory. Noticing the way Ami was looking at her, almost in horror, she immediately relaxed her face back into her normal, childish grin. _

"_Don't worry. We'll take care of Rini!" She giggled in a high pitched voice and tried to comfort Ami by placing a hand on her shoulder, but Ami moved away. Pallas' devious face returned. It seemed that the Mercurial princess was as cunning as they had spoken her to be. Pallas smirked and walked over to the teleporter backwards, not losing sight of Ami and the distraught expression on her face. _

"_Sweet dreams," Pallas said in an almost eerie voice as she took a step up into the teleporter, her hair ornaments making their dissonant music as she did so. With one last smirk, Pallas was gone._

Ami shot up from her sleeping bag, panting with fright. She touched her clammy chest and then checked her forehead for a fever. All was well, at least with her body. She desperately tried to control her breathing but found herself panting no matter what she did to stop herself. Her eyes scanned the room. All the girls were still fast asleep. Her eyes looked past Rei at her alarm clock, 4:02AM.

"It was just a night terror." Ami told herself as she lovingly caressed her own arm, trying to comfort herself.

"Nothing more." She laid back down but found herself unable to deter her eyes from the window. She had heard those words and that chiming sound while awake.

"My fright of the noises just induced the nightmare." She whispered to herself. Her eyes refused to close again. Part of her was afraid of losing sight of the window, while another part of her was afraid to fall asleep and see Para Para's face again as Sailor Pallas, replacing her with her malicious and manipulative cunning. She wanted to leave that room and walk around the dojo, but, for some reason, she felt unsafe and she didn't want to leave her friends alone and vulnerable in case there was real danger lurking about. Her chest seemed to heave with shivers and her abdominal muscles spasmed uncontrollably as if she were freezing cold. Ami waited patiently for something to happen. She didn't know what, exactly, she was waiting for, but she knew something was bound to happen sooner or later.

After what felt like thirty minutes of watching, a bright light shone into her back, casting her own shadow over Mina. She turned around sharply to hear Rei's grandfather whistling idly as he loudly put a tea kettle on the stove and waited. Standing up and putting on her sundress, she silently walked out to the kitchen to join him. All she wanted was to be near another conscious person and maybe convince herself that it was just a dream and nothing more.

"Good morning!" Rei's grandfather smiled gleefully as Ami approached him.

"Early bird?" He asked as he brought out an extra cup for her to drink tea from.

"Mostly, not usually this early though!" Ami smiled calmly and kneeled by the table, awaiting the hot tea.

"We have a guest!" Chad beamed as he walked in and bowed before his sensei.

"Oh good, you're here. I don't have to do this anymore." Grandpa said as he stepped away from the stove and left Chad to guard the tea as if it was some monumental feat for him to finish.

"How do you like your tea, Ami?" Chad asked as he pulled out a glass for himself and prepared the tea.

"A teaspoon of sugar and nothing more," Ami replied with a short lived sigh.

"Everything all right with you?" Grandpa asked, looking concerned with Ami's clammy appearance.

"Yes, fine thank you." She nodded respectfully and thanked Chad when he set down her cup in front of her. Chad sat beside her and, for the moment, she enjoyed feeling her body next to her own. She felt as if she would keel over any moment from either fright or anxiety but she held on strong, waiting for the girls to awaken... whenever that would be. As the three of them drank their tea in silence, a strong wind battered the kitchen window, threatening to bust it open.

"Hmm..." Grandpa looked up through squinted eyes to notice. "Who locked that?" He asked.

"Probably Rei," Chad replied as he stood up and opened the window, letting the warm air fill the cold kitchen as both sides of the window flapped around. The sound of the wind angrily battering the trees outside bothered Ami. It seemed that almost anything involving windows in the Hino dojo truck a sour note with her. And that's when she heard it... the loud sound of wind chimes ringing in her ears. She felt her body shaking again. Was she imagining it?

"Chad, bring that thing in, will you, it's making a ruckus and ruining our morning reflections." Grandpa complained.

"Yes, sensei." Chad respectfully bowed his head and moved forward to grasp the small set of wind chimes that hung from a small precipice on their roof. His torso hung out the window as he retrieved the item and pulled it inside safely and set it on the kitchen counter.

Grandpa sighed with relief.

"Finally, some peace eh?" He looked at Ami, who still looked as if she'd seen a ghost.

Chad rummaged through the refrigerator to see if Serena had spared them anything. He found that their food had been untouched and pulled out a few slices of fruit for them to enjoy. He offered Ami a slice of melon. She refused and focused her eyes on the wind chimes that rested on the counter.

"Gorgeous, aren't they?" Grandpa asked, referring to the chimes. He sunk his teeth into a piece of fruit and hungrily chewed and swallowed.

"I love they make at night. I can hear them from my room, you know. It's almost like the wind is gracing me with a song, or, if the weather isn't favorable... a warning."


	18. Cere Cere's Performance

Darien opened the car door for Serena and offered her his hand so she could get up safely. Smiling, she took his hand and looked around her as she stepped out of the car.

"This place is really gorgeous, Darien. Are you sure you can afford this?" Serena asked as she fixed her eyes on the two story beach house in front of her.

"Don't worry about it," he told her as he locked up the car and took a moment to look at the home himself.

"I called in a favor, he owed me one." Darien smiled and softly placed one hand on his girlfriend's lower back.

"I can't tell you how many times I checked up on his dog after it had a spinal cord surgery to make sure it was all right. Trust me, he owes me." He chuckled and took his eyes from the house and slowly returned them to Serena.

Serena's eyes were big and bright as she looked over from window to window. The house was big, but not bulky, at least not from the outside. The outside walls were made of dark gray and white stones, giving the house an old, antique look to it. The stones weren't arranged evenly like bricks. Each stone had its own unique shape and it had taken some serious architectural thought to put all the rocks together in such a way that the house would stand, structurally.

"Are you going to just stand here and watch?" Darien asked with a small chuckle as he began to move towards the house, looking at the small lavender tree in the front garden and doing a quick scan of the quaint backyard and porch.

"I'm coming," She replied as she reached into the backseat of the car to grab the small suitcase she had brought along from home, and walked hurriedly towards him grasping his hand loosely. Her mood was unusual tonight. She felt very mellow and relaxed and her words rolled off her tongue coolly and almost maturely.

Darien let go of her hand in order to fiddle with the house keys and figure out which one did what. After a few failed attempts, he got the door open and held it for Serena to enter. His hand fiddled in the darkness, caressing the wall next to the door, looking for the light switch.

"It's even nicer on the inside!" Serena exclaimed as the lights came on and she set her suitcase down on the floor to get a better look around the home. Darien closed the door after them and took a quick look around the house; he wasn't so much interested in the architecture as he was in watching Serena's reactions.

"Darien, look at the living room!" She yelped with glee as she jumped up and down, excitedly.

The living room of the house was simple, yet elegant. Serena's small heels echoed on the hardwood floors as she looked at the black and white nature photography on the walls.

"These are amazing. Is your friend a photographer?" She asked as she looked on, past the fireplace and sat on one of the leather couches.

"I don't think so. I think he buys them off some one. Can't be sure though." Darien examined the pieces of art.

"Actually, I'm wrong." He turned to Serena and pointed to small print on the corner of each photo.

"These are his initials, they could be his."

Serena was still sitting on the couch, looking around at all the photographs and setting her eyes down to the long, glass table in front of all the couches. It bore nothing but a small bowl with river stones, and a small betta fish which nipped at the roots of a bamboo plant on one end, some red candles in descending order in the center, and a slender, glass vase with three white orchids on the other end.

"He really does have strange taste, doesn't he?"

"He doesn't come here often. This is just his winter getaway where he can be alone and meditate. That's probably why this place looks so peaceful and has all these new-age type things in it." Darien commented as he crouched and looked at the red betta inside the bowl with the stones.

"I know he has a cleaning lady hired to come in here almost every day to feed the fish and take care of the garden. She's allowed into all rooms except his work room, whatever that is."

"Makes sense," Serena added as she stood up and walked through the kitchen and into what seemed to be a small studio.

"Does he write, too?" She asked.

"Yeah," Darien hollered as he supported his hands on his knees and stood up.

"That's what he does on his free time. He likes to write books on weird mathematical equations, the paranormal, you know, things like that. Why?"

"No reason," she hollered back as her hand gently removed some dust from an old typewriter. Unlike the living room and the kitchen, this room was a complete mess. Papers and white out were found everywhere, a stapler was on the floor and sticky notes were pasted all over the walls, reminding the writer of convenient plot points and quirky traits his characters should have. Serena giggled silently as she walked around all the crumpled papers that covered the floor, past the overflowing trash can, and stared at the wall, reading all the writer's secrets.

Noting that Serena was entertained and in her own little world, Darien picked up her suitcase and ran upstairs to check out the rest of the house. The second floor of the home was a big let down after seeing the first floor. Well, at least the bedroom was.

The walls of the room were a light caramel color, and the bedroom seemed to follow somewhat of a Mediterranean theme. The bed had a set of decorative pillows, all with gold accents and swirling patterns on it. The covers were a blood red color, just like the pillows, and even the sheets. It even had a light gold canopy that swung down and draped the bed.

_That's kind of cool..._ Darien thought for a moment as he fiddled with the canopy. On either side of the bed were small night tables just big enough to fit one small lamp on each and a tiny drawer. The room had one giant window that led to the personal balcony, but the view was currently obstructed by a red curtain that kept it from view.

_He must be one big fan of red._ Darien thought to himself as he stepped over the red and gold rug laid out in front of the bed and stared at the dresser just opposite to the headboard on the bed.

_A kinky... fan of red..._ he concluded as he noticed that the big mirror atop the redwood dresser was facing the canopy of the bed.

"Darien?" Serena asked as she entered the bedroom and sighed with relief, smiling.

"I thought you left me in here all alone." She giggled and held his hand.

"I got spooked for a moment."

"No, I just came up to see the rest of the house." He reassured her as she looked around the bedroom. While Darien found the entire decor to be a little tacky and risqué, Serena seemed to love every small detail. She took particular interest to the items on the dresser.

"Did you see this?" She asked as she pointed to a white, marble sculpture of a naked couple, dancing. Their bodies were entwined and their hands supported a glass saucer, which the owner of the home had filled with more of his precious river stones. Her eyes then looked further down and found a gold bowl filled to the brim with potpourri.

"No wonder it smells so nice in here!" She exclaimed as she bent over to take a big whiff.

Darien chuckled.

"You're like a big kid in a candy store, aren't you?" He asked as Serena reached ahead of her and turned on a small waterfall that played soothing jungle sounds. She watched as the water trickled down the smooth stones and collected in a small pool, which then drained and fed the fountain again.

"This place is great! Can we live here?" She joked as she walked around the room, trying to get her paws on something else. Darien shook his head and smiled, crossing his arms and watching her.

"Thanks again for bringing me here; it's the best present ever!" She exclaimed as she turned to face him. There was an awkward silence and she could feel that Darien had a bigger present in mind than just the house visit. She blushed for a moment.

"Have you seen the bathrooms yet?" She asked in a brief attempt to break the tension.

"The one downstairs is so nice. The walls are this light green color and there are orchids in there too. Your friend must have a lot of money." She laughed nervously.

"He's pretty rich," Darien admitted. "His parents were always wealthy and he just picked up on their luck. Kid doesn't have to work for anything but he does it anyway, really respectable." He added as he let his lower back rest on the dresser. He looked at Serena and smiled.

She nodded, almost as if she were reading his mind, and walked over to hug him tightly.

"You didn't have to do this, you know?" She said calmly as she shut her eyes and rested her head on his chest.

"It's your birthday," was his only reply as he bowed his head and kissed her hair, sighing happily. Smiling with her eyes still closed, Serena looked up and stood on the tips of her toes, reaching as far as she could to try and kiss Darien. He licked his lips once and bent down to meet hers.

"How can you be so perfect?" Serena asked with a blush as she slowly opened her eyes and stared at her loving boyfriend.

"I'm not perfect, not by far!" Darien laughed and clasped his hands on the small of her back.

"You just see me as perfect because you love me. You know, I heard a quote the other day." He looked down and kissed Serena's forehead.

"You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly."

"I like that quote," Serena replied bashfully and shamelessly reached up to kiss Darien a second time.

"Again?" Darien smiled as he broke the kiss.

"That's a first." He thought out loud.

"You're usually just happy with one kiss." He added, blushing with shock.

"Well, I'm an adult now." Serena said as she smoothed out the small wrinkles of his shirt with her hands.

"That means we can do more... adult things." Her face flushed red and she kept her line of vision on Darien's chest.

"More... adult things?" Darien asked, looking down at the part in her hair. She nodded and hugged him tighter.

"Like what?"

Bashfully, Serena's fingertips searched his back through his shirt.

"Like," she paused for a moment and bit her lip. "Like the things that you brought me here to do." She finished valiantly.

"Like having dinner together and spending time alone without having all your friends around us?" He asked, perplexedly.

"No!" She shook her head and blushed, becoming increasingly frustrated with him. It was hard enough for her to speak of these things, let alone repeat them.

"The other things you brought me here for. Come on Darien! Don't act innocent; you know what I'm talking about! You brought me here to make love to me, didn't you?" She waited a few seconds and then looked up at him to see his reaction. It seemed as if nothing was computing in his noggin. She sighed impatiently.

"Because I'm 18?" She tried to jog his memory.

"It's ok to do stuff like that now without my parents coming after me... or the law." She added as an afterthought with a silly smile.

"Serena," Darien spoke softly. "I brought you here today so that you could have fun on your birthday. I thought you'd like the idea of being on your own for once, without your friends and family constantly being around. I brought you here so we could spend some time together walking on the beach, going out to dinner, maybe finding fun things to do in the nearby town..." He cleared his throat.

"But, that was all I had hoped to do with you here with me, spend time together away from everyone else, nothing more." His ears rang noisily with the sound of uninterrupted silence. He could feel Serena tensing up around him, feeling as if she'd played the part of the fool.

"You know that those things don't matter to me, that I'm not with you just for... that." He ran his hand through her hair and softly played with one of her odangos.

"I'd rather us just take our time and enjoy our relationship. I don't want you to feel like you're obligated to give yourself to me the first chance you get. Everyone talks about guys as if we're sex obsessed, but that's not the case with me. I can wait until we're married, it's no problem."

And just like that, the conversation was over. Serena knew that arguing would be useless with Darien. If she tried to tell him that she actually wanted him to take her, he'd just blame it on peer pressure or some sort of teenage right of passage into adulthood once they hit 18. He wouldn't believe that she had suggested it simply because she wanted to be completely his. She sighed heavily, her brow knit closely together in an upset look. There were times she felt like Darien never took her seriously because she was 8 years younger than him. He always undermined her decisions or passed off her ideas in place for more 'mature' ones. This was one thing, though, that she never thought a man of 26 years would so eagerly pass up. Was Darien cheating on her? That had to be the only logical reason. They had always had such an innocent relationship. Darien had never asked for anything physical other than a kiss here or there. His hands had never wandered; he had never pressed himself against her with intent. Serena bit back the urge to cry.

"Are you all right?" Darien asked, kissing her head after the long silence. Serena nodded into his chest and did her best to absorb her tears silently back into her eyes.

"Why are you so quiet?" He asked. The question seemed to irritate her. He should know what was wrong, why she was quiet. Why didn't he just make love to her? Was she not pretty enough or smart enough? Maybe he'd prefer pretty Mina or smart Ami.

"No reason," she said boldly as she removed her head from his chest and smiled at him, trying her hardest to control her anger and frustration.

"I think I'm going to go to bed." She said as she left the room and walked downstairs.

"The bed's right here!" Darien shouted, chuckling.

"I need my suitcase." She yelled back as she dragged the small suitcase up by herself, without his help.

_He didn't even offer to help me..._ she thought as she reached the top floor and fought to catch her breath.

"Serena?" Darien asked as he poked his head out of the bedroom and caught sight of her dragging the small suitcase up.

"Jeez, what did you put in that thing? We're only going to be here tonight and tomorrow you know? You didn't need to bring your entire closet." He added.

At this, Serena felt her blood boil. He had brought her on, what she thought to be, a romantic getaway, then he wouldn't touch her, he wouldn't even help her with her luggage and now he dared complain at the amount of clothes she brought along? She wanted to yell at him and let him know that all the clothes she brought were there to make him happy. She had brought along all his favorite outfits, even the shoes he had claimed he liked on her. She wanted to cry, not out of sadness, but out of rage, something very rare for Serena.

"Excuse me," was all she said as she walked past Darien and into the room, dragging her clothes with her. She rested the suitcase against the red curtains that covered the glass door leading to the balcony, and began unzipping it to get her clothes out.

"Why are you going to sleep so early? Aren't there things you'd like to do? Maybe walk on the beach or go out to dinner, I still have those reservations."

"I'm not hungry," she replied sourly as she yanked a silk teddy out of her suitcase and stormed out of the room to put it on in the bathroom.

"Not hungry?" Darien asked in reply.

"Serena, you're always hungry. You're a bottomless pit!" He laughed, teasingly as she walked into the bathroom and closed the door.

_Now I'm a pig, too!_ Her thoughts were going wild as she reached behind her neck and untied her top.

_I can't believe him! _ She yelled in her mind as she grit her teeth and pulled her green top over her head.

_What a jerk!_ Sighing angrily, in a huff, she picked up the teddy and just wanted to rip it open. She had bought this over weeks in advance, hoping to wear it on the night that she and Darien made love for the first time. Now all she wanted to do was tear it to shreds, but she had brought no other clothes worthy of sleeping in. Giving in and trying to calm herself down by taking deep breaths, she slipped the garment on but kept her jeans on. She reached down and popped the button of the jeans while sliding down the zipper and covered the opening with the nightie. Facing the bathroom mirror, she undid the knots in her hair and let it all fall loosely to the backs of her thighs. She combed the blond strands with her hand, picked up her green shirt, and walked out of the bathroom.

Darien heard the door of the bathroom open and quickly looked over. It wasn't until Serena hadn't replied to his food comment that he had realized that something was off with her. What was off, though, he did not know.

"What the heck is that?" He asked as he saw the nightgown she had so casually slipped on.

"My pajamas," she replied coldly as she stomped into the room and tossed her shirt on her suitcase, took the decorative pillows off the bed, and crawled under the covers.

"Serena, did I say something wrong?" He asked as he walked around the bed and squatted in front of her. She only shook her head and closed her eyes, as if she were trying to fall asleep.

"What has gotten into you?" He asked.

"First you assume I'm going to just take advantage of you because you're of legal age, then you come out wearing this? I'm really confused with your behavior." His eyes were full of concern. To Darien, Serena was just offering herself to him in order to fulfill some sort of idea that some one had implanted in her head. After all, she was so easy to lead around.

"Nothing is wrong, and don't you start giving me that concerned doctor speech you do. I'm not interested in hearing it." And with that, she flipped herself over and faced the other direction.

"Goodnight, Darien," she said as calmly and as maturely as she could manage before she reached over and turned off the lamp on her side of the bed.

Darien was left with his mouth open and a few words still lingered in his throat that he wanted to get out to her. What the hell had gotten into Serena tonight? Shaking his head, he stood up and took off his shoes, shirt and jeans, folding them and laying them on top of Serena's shirt with the shoes lying neatly next to the pile. He took a moment to just stare at Serena, trying to rewind the events of the night and see where he had gone wrong. Giving up, he sighed and walked to his side of the bed, got in and turned off his lamp as he lay on his side, facing away from Serena. Maybe tomorrow things would be better, that was all he could hope for since it was made apparent that she did not want to talk about things.

Darkness soon filled the room and the only light that lit the house was the one in the living room which Darien had not felt like turning off after their spat. His eyes were focused on the stairs down the hall that led to the source of light. He tried closing his eyes and forcing himself to sleep, but to no avail.

"Interesting..." a voice purred from the balcony. Ceres Ceres had been walking on the balcony's railing for some time now, listening to Serena and Darien conversing through the glass doors. She balanced herself on one foot and brought her torso down to face the railing, her other leg was balanced gracefully in the air.

"Can there be trouble in paradise?" She giggled softly to herself as she noticed that the arguing had ended and the lights had been shut off.

"Or is it time to tango?" She jumped with her foot, spun in the air, and landed gracefully on her two feet inside the balcony. In her mind, a large audience was going wild as they threw flowers and gifts her way.

"Thank you, thank you!" She said with a bow, facing each direction as if trying to please all the imaginary people. Her hand reached over to the small, round table set up in the balcony and took a flower off the thin vase that rested on it. She waved the flower in the air, as if thanking her fans before she crushed the flower in her hand and tossed it to the floor. It was time for business.

A small smirk crawled up her lips as she walked closer to the shut doors of the balcony and pressed her ear against it. All she could hear was the faint shuffling of a body in search of a comfortable position. There were no words being exchanged and no sounds of pleasure coming from the room.

"Trouble, indeed." She confirmed as she brought her index finger to her lips and bit the tip of the nail softly, smiling, as if she were deciding on a devious plan. She giggled briefly before jumping back up on the ledge and walking on it as if it were a tight-rope. At the edge of the railing, a trapeze appeared and she hopped on it confidently, swinging back and forth through the air.

"What to do? What do to?" She asked herself as she picked up as much momentum as she could and let go of the trapeze, spiraling downwards yet landing perfectly on the front lawn with her arms spread open, waiting to receive her medal.

She looked both ways before sighing at her nonexistent public.

"You're all such hard critics!" She growled and began walking away. A noise stopped her dead in her tracks and she turned around to find a white kitten meowing at her.

"Oh, you loved it?" She blushed, in her delusion.

"It was perfect?" Her hands covered her face bashfully.

"No, stop!" She giggled at the cat.

"Actually, keep going... I liked where that was going." She laughed and clasped her hands in front of her, apparently listening to the cat's critique of her performance.

"Oh you're too kind, I should thank you. No, I insist." Ceres Ceres' face contorted and seemed almost maniacal as she pulled out her pool stick and one of the Amazon Stones.

"Now hold still!" She said, in an almost sing song voice as she aimed the ball at the cat, which looked awfully frightened of what would happen next.

"It won't hurt, I promise. Palanquin ball!" She yelled as she smacked the ball with her cue stick and watched as the ball went straight into the cat's body. With a pained meow, the cat's body stretched more and more, losing most of its fur and attaining a human figure.

"How lovely," she commented as she admired her work. In front of her lay a pale young woman with amber eyes and snowy white hair that reached her waist. Ceres Ceres pointed her cue stick at the cat woman.

"You must make sure that everything stays the way it is now with them, do you hear me?" The nude woman looked up and nodded weakly, or rather, shyly. She struggled to cover her bosom with her hands, and she looked behind herself frantically as she noticed her tail was gone.

"Pay attention, Cattie." Ceres Ceres said sharply, her dark pink eyes staring at the girl pointedly. Noticing that she was getting no reply, she sighed and pointed the pool stick at her once more, this time making clothes appear on her body.

"Now listen, you must stand in their way. That is, if you want to return to your body..." She smirked and let her voice trail off. The young cat looked up pleadingly and bowed her head, obeying.

"It shall be done," was all the woman said, resent in her voice as she bowed her head in obedience once more.

"Good!" Ceres Ceres responded, pleased.

"Do not fret, by this time tomorrow they should be packing up to leave in the morning. If you make sure that their relationship remains strained for the next 48 hours or so, you'll get your body back, but not a second before." Her voice sounded harsh and unforgiving, yet juvenile.

"Now, off you go, scamper off and do as I say." She said coldly as she disappeared into the shadows.

Darien got out of bed at the sound of the painful yowling of the cat as it had transformed into a human. He wondered if maybe there was a thief on the property. There was nothing to make the night short of terrible at this point. His hand reached for the lamp on the night table and turned it on.

"What's wrong?" Serena asked with concern, as, she too had heard the yowling. She sat up in bed, holding the silk teddy to her chest and turned on her lamp.

"I don't know." Darien confessed as he stood up and walked over to the pile of clothes.

"Stay here, I'll check it out," he said confidently as he slipped into his jeans and began to slowly open the curtain leading to the balcony. Noting that there was no one on the balcony, he opened the glass door and stood outside, letting the red curtain close behind him, concealing Serena's view. He looked down into the front lawn and saw Cattie, still resting her weight on her one arm with her legs folded neatly to her side. The sudden flash of light from above startled her and she stood up in a second's time with catlike reflexes.

"Is everything all right, Darien?" Serena asked from within.

"Yeah, everything's fine, nothing to worry about." Darien replied, not taking his eyes off of Cattie. She looked skittish, like she needed help. He extended his arm out to her, not that he could reach her, but just out of sheer habit. She shook her head no, looking scared, and grabbed onto her sundress, smoothing it over twice before turning and running away with unbelievable nimbleness. Darien had to muster up all his power to not yell after her and ask her to stop. Cattie stopped at the edge of the lawn and looked back at him, sadness in her eyes, almost as if she were going to slowly walk back to him and talk.

"Darien?" Serena asked as she walked out behind him, scanning over his shoulder at the lawn to make sure all was well. Cattie bolted off as fast as she could.

"I said everything was fine!" He snapped without meaning to.

"I'm sorry..." He immediately apologized, but Serena had already bitten her lip to hold back the tears, stepped back inside, and had burrowed herself in the bed, turning off her lamp and hiding her head under her pillow so he would not pester her. It seemed that, she too was annoying him tonight with her weird way of acting. He just wasn't in the mood for anything else interrupting his sleep at the time. Sighing and resting his head on the edge of the door for a moment, he straightened up and walked back inside to his side of the bed, turning off the lamp and once more turning away from Serena. Darien closed his eyes and tried to focus on something else in the room, anything but Serena's presence, as fatigue slowly set in and he began to drift off.

Serena, however, couldn't get to sleep. She was facing the red curtains which Darien had forgotten to close, and her eyes were staring listlessly at the night sky. She couldn't figure out, for the life of her, why Darien was being so cruel to her tonight. Her chest began to heave and shiver, her eyes threatening to start crying, but she held it all back, squinting her eyes hard and biting her lips. There was no way she was going to give into his cruelties and cry. He wouldn't win this, not if she had a say in it.


	19. Amazonian Kidnapping

The night seemed to have quickly passed for Darien. At the crack of dawn, he had stealthily rolled out of bed and had gone down with the hopes of buying some breakfast for Serena before she woke up. Sliding on the shirt he had worn the night before, he picked up his shoes and socks and walked out of the house, closing the main door softly behind him. He stepped into his car and started the engine. There was so much he was thinking of. Why had Serena acted so strangely last night? Sighing and shifting gears in the car, he shook off the thought and drove off. Maybe she had cooled off overnight and today she would be the girl he knew and loved again, or so he strongly hoped for. Part of him felt guilty for having ruined her birthday. Something he had said or done had set her off, that much he knew.

"Concentrate!" With a sharp exhale, he threw his right arm behind his seat and arched his head back as he slowly pulled out of the driveway. His hand shifted the gears again, this time to move forward, as he turned the wheel and prepared himself to turn.

"Wait!" Darien yelled as he spotted Cattie walking on the sidewalk, passing the beach house.

The woman stopped and turned to look at him with the same skittish reflexes she had shown the night before. Now, in the daytime, Darien could take a closer look at her. Her hair was, indeed, as white as freshly fallen snow and down to her waist. Some of the hair was shortened to her jaw line, dramatically framing her face, and a set of long bangs seemed to obscure part of her left eye. She was a tall girl, measuring around 5'7, from what Darien could tell and her limbs were firm and nimble yet seemingly graceful as she walked.

"I just want to talk," he said softly, with his arm stretched out as it had been during the night, this time, in order to calm her and stop her from running away. Cattie nodded and stepped to the side, with her hands folded in front of her, and gave Darien the space needed to pull back into the driveway. Her amber eyes watched him closely as he quickly drove his car in, turned off the engine and jumped out to meet her.

"Hi..." Darien said nervously as he approached the girl. He didn't want to spook her again.

"I'm Darien. I'm staying in Genki's house today and part of tomorrow." He extended his hand to her, in greeting.

She looked at his hand with some confusion and then met his eyes with her own.

"My name is..." she paused for a moment. Having always been a stray, she realized she had no name other than what Ceres Ceres had called her that night.

"Cattie, my name is Cattie." She bowed her head a little.

"Do you live around here?" He asked, trying to pry out of her why she had been in his lawn last night.

"Yes, I live all over this neighborhood." Her reply struck Darien as somewhat odd. How could some one live all over the neighborhood? Didn't she have a home? Taking another look at her, he noticed that she was wearing nothing but her brown sundress. She had no shoes, no jewelry, not even makeup or anything on her person resembling keys or money. He was staring at a tall girl his age, wearing a dress and nothing more. As he politely returned his eyes to her face, her stomach grumbled loudly.

"Have you had breakfast?" He asked. He figured that a hungry homeless wouldn't object to a free breakfast.

"I have." Cattie nodded as she grabbed her tummy and looked almost as if she was going to break down and cry.

"Eating a mouse or a bird usually fills me up, but this body is much too large to sneak up on either one, and much too slow to actually catch anything." Her fingertips seemed to be digging into her abdomen.

"I had to settle for some grass and a few flowers I stole from the Hinamoru house across the street." She was fighting hard to hold back her tears.

"I hope they don't find out. They're really nice people and usually leave me leftovers on their front porch once in a while. If you tell them, they won't let me chew on the chicken bones or lick the fish spines they throw out for me." Her voice was breaking and her eyes were pleading for Darien to remain silent.

"You eat mice and birds... and grass and flowers..." He couldn't even bring himself to mention the leftovers that the Hinamoru household left behind for her, which, from what he had heard, sounded nothing more than mere bones yet she found it such a kind gift.

"Don't you?" She asked him, somewhat curious.

"I guess if I was forced to..." Darien said, uncomfortably with a small chuckle.

"Hey listen, I was just going out to buy breakfast, do you want to come with me? I plan on getting a lot of food and I definitely wouldn't mind sharing with you." Cattie hesitated for a moment, not really knowing what to say, and not being very fond of cars.

"Think of it as a meeting gift." Darien tried any excuse to feed the poor girl without making it sound like she was a pity case.

"When neighbors meet, they give each other jello and pies and things like that. I'm too cooking impaired to do any of that so I'll just take you out. Sound good?"

"In that case, I'll go." Cattie gave Darien a friendly smile and walked with him towards his car.

Sitting on the roof, Ceres Ceres watched the scene unfold perfectly to her tastes, which was a good thing for Cattie.

"Time for sleeping beauty to open her eyes." She did a back-flip off the roof and landed inside the balcony. Taking a quick peek over the railing and deciding that Darien wouldn't look up and spot her, she opened the glass door of the balcony and pushed the curtains open as far as she could. Immediately, Serena started groaning and mumbling angrily in her sleep as the sunlight heated her sleeping eyelids.

"Toodles!" The pink haired teen giggled as she walked back out onto the balcony and disappeared into the sunlight.

"Darien?" Serena asked sleepily, with a hint of annoyance in her voice. She groaned out a whine and sat up in bed, tucking her hair behind her ears and struggling to open her lazy lids. She looked over and noticed Darien had already gotten out of bed. Her mouth opened into a loud yawn and she stretched her arms above her head before standing up and shuffling over to the balcony.

"He can't even close a stinking curtain?" Her whiny voice set in as she grabbed the red curtains and started pulling them shut. Something caught her eyes.

"Huh?" She asked herself as she set one foot out into the balcony and peered over at the driveway, her hands holding onto the glass sliding door. Surely, her eyes were deceiving her because what she was seeing made no sense. Her Darien was outside, beside his car, opening the passenger door for some girl that wasn't her! No, it had to be some sort of mistake. Maybe he was just being nice and giving some one a ride. That had to be it. Yet she could not keep her eyes off this new girl. She was so pretty, at least what Serena could see of her, and she seemed to be keeping up with Darien's conversations, something she always had trouble doing.

"She looks older too..." Serena added as Darien helped the girl into his car and even helped her put on her seatbelt.

"How fresh!" Serena yelled as Darien bent over and showed the girl how it had to be done, snaking his hands around her middle and locking in the seatbelt.

"Who is this girl?" A jealous fit took over her. She was going to find out who this girl was and where the hell she thought she was going with her boyfriend.

Not thinking straight, Serena left the balcony and put up her hair into a long ponytail as she stormed through the house and ran downstairs, barefoot, ready to confront the girl. As she opened the front door, Darien was turning into the street, smiling happily as his passenger dug her nails into the seat and looked ahead with fright. Serena raised a finger, getting ready to yell, but by the time she got the momentum to, they were gone. Just like that, Darien was gone with that older girl and there was nothing she could have done to keep him with her. And that was all it took, or rather, that was all she could take. Her eyes became swollen with tears and she broke out crying on the doorsteps.

The bright sunlight of mid-morning shone through Rei's window, awakening the girls slowly.

"Morning already?" Mina moaned with a yawn as she sat up and rubbed her eyes. She looked around her and noticed Ami's absence.

"Where's Ami?" She asked Rei, who was now standing and scratching her head.

"Probably studying something somewhere." Rei replied while taking a deep breath and exhaling in a long yawn.

"Yeah, you know she's always up early doing things." Lita waved off the concern and stood up, cracking her back and arms.

"Do you have any idea of how gross that is?" Mina asked, covering her ears to avoid the cracking noise.

"No," Lita smiled and cracked her hands in front of Mina's horrified face.

"Why don't you tell me?" She joked and walked out of the room, heading towards the bathroom.

Mina sighed and shook her head as she looked at Rei, who seemed to be deep in thought.

"Everything all right?"

"Huh? Yeah, just wondering what Chad's up to." Rei rubbed her upper arm and looked out the window.

Mina smiled slyly. "What's up with you two anyway? You guys dating?" She was just as nosy with or without her partner in crime, Serena.

"No one's asked anyone out, if that's what you're asking. We're just... kind of..." She tried to think of the right term for what they were, but none would be satisfactory. They cared for each other and they definitely did things that only a couple would do, yet no one had asked to date. Did that even matter? After all, it was just a title.

"So you guys are..." Mina winked, hinting at something dirty. "Friends with benefits, perhaps?"

"No, it's not like that." Rei laughed and then realized how terrible her breath smelled.

"Ooh, be right back." She jumped from her bed and raced to the bathroom after Lita.

"Avoiding the question huh?" Mina muttered under her breath happily. She wished that Serena could be there with her, interrogating Rei. They really did make the best detectives when they were in search of gossip. A lonely smile adorned her lips.

"She's probably having a real great time right now. I wish I had some one that would spoil me like that!" Mina exclaimed with a bit of a pout as she blushed and thought of the things Darien and Serena would be doing at the time.

"I could spoil you like that." Jun Jun smirked as she crawled through the window and landed on Rei's bed. She wore a biker's outfit and a pair of goggles which she took off and made vanish in her hand. Mina's eyes were open in shock. She tried to yell for help, but Jun Jun put a finger to her own lips and silenced Mina's voice immediately.

Ves Ves poked her head in through the window and snickered evilly.

"I'll grab the others." And with that, her head left the same way it had come in.

Jun Jun's eyes were fixed on Mina's as she walked over confidently and squatted over her sitting figure.

"So, how about it?" Her lips curled into a smirk.

"Want to let me spoil you, pretty girl?" She now lowered herself even more until she was sitting firmly on Mina's groin. Mina looked away, blushing. She didn't like girls in that special way, but Jun Jun's masculine clothes and walk made her somewhat nervous. She even smelled like men's cologne. Mina took a small whiff, hoping the green haired girl wouldn't notice. As a response, Jun Jun lifted her neck proudly, to let Mina sample her better.

"You like it?" She asked as Mina frowned and looked away. Jun Jun only chuckled and nodded.

"I guess that means you do." She stood up and shook her body like a dog, making her biking outfit vanish and substituting it with her usual Amazonian garments. She assumed her position over Mina's body. No sound was coming from any place in the house, so she assumed Ves Ves was still stalking her prey. Good, more time for her. Mina seemed to be paralyzed from head to toe, only being able to move her eyes, and, to some extent, her lips.

"How about a kiss?" Jun Jun asked as she lifted Mina's blushing face with her hand and kissed her lips. At first, Mina's eyes contorted into an angry stare, but, as Jun Jun began to lightly tug on her lips, she closed her eyes and began to silently tear.

"What's wrong, you don't like that?" She asked with actual concern. Mina opened her eyes and her tears flowed to her tank top.

"Speak." Jun Jun snapped her fingers and Mina's sobs became audible. As if not to alert the others, Mina covered her mouth and controlled her crying. Jun Jun reached over and wiped a tear from her eyes, Mina flinched. The Amazoness smirked.

"If you didn't want me here, you'd have alerted your little friends, by now."

Struggling to speak through her sobs, Mina opened her mouth, "I don't want to lead them here, to your trap. Do as you will with me, just let them go."

"Trap? There's no trap. You saw Ves Ves go out to get them. No matter what you do, she'll get them. She tracks like a hunter and pounces like a beast. There's no escaping her grasp when she wants to trap you." The green eyed girl looked down into Mina's eyes again.

"Are you sure that's the only reason you're not screaming for help?" She whispered into the blonde's ear and bit the ridge softly. Mina gasped with a shaky breath and stiffened her body. Jun Jun's body movements were stealthy and fluid, like that of a cat, but they still managed to remain masculine, even though she had such a beautiful female form. Mina's quivering gasp and reluctance to answer her told Jun Jun that there was more to Mina's restraint than just concern for her friends' safety. With a devious smile, she faced Mina and licked her bottom lip. Again, Mina arched her back and quivered with her breath. Her eyes had stopped producing tears but her expression looked as pained as it had before.

"Go on then." Jun Jun stood up straight and took a few steps back. She snapped her fingers again, giving life to Mina's limbs. She took yet another step back and sat on Rei's bed, her legs wide open and her back slouching forward a little. She rested one elbow on her thigh and let the arm hang down between her legs. One of her eyebrows were arched.

"Go, I said. Go get your friends. Send them over here, in their colorful little skirts and witty mottos. You outnumber my sister and me two to one. I think the odds are in your favor." She watched Mina carefully, licking her lips and smiling. Mina did not budge at all, even though she was free to do as she pleased.

Alerted by the faint sounds of girls in the bathroom, Ami perked up her head. She had spent a few hours sitting at the kitchen table, thinking. She was so enveloped in her thoughts that she hardly noticed when Chad and Rei's grandfather had walked out for their morning jog and sparring session. Rei's voice had definitely been clear in her ears, no doubt about that. Her giggles had given Ami the reality check she needed in order to run to her friends and let them all know what she had dreamt. However, after having sat so long in the same position, her legs weren't up to the task of standing, let alone running.

Wincing, she willed her stiff legs to move, but she ended up having to crawl over to the sink and use it as leverage in order to stand. She could have just hollered for Mina or Lita to help her, but she remained quiet for some unbeknownst reason. Finally standing up on her own and feeling the dreaded pains of the pins and needles coursing through her limbs, her eyes fell to the counter where she noticed the wind-chimes, still lying motionless. A sudden fear struck her but she forced it down.

"Just get to the room." Ami willed herself.

"It's only a few yards away, and walking will help the numbness. Walk to the room." She set her mind to it and strengthened her legs, locking them tightly so they wouldn't buck.

Just as she started to bravely move forward, the chimes on the counter began to dangle without wind. Ami's eyes darted towards the window and noticed it was closed. Rei's grandfather's words immediately came to mind, the chimes were soothing but they also warned when a storm was coming. Ami knew that the storm had arrived. Without a moment's hesitation, she ran to the bathroom and found Rei nowhere in sight. Feeling frightened, she hobbled over to the room and slid the door open, to her surprise, finding Jun Jun sitting patiently on Rei's bed and Mina with a tear stained face.

"Get away from her!" Ami yelled indignantly, fearing that Jun Jun had harmed Mina.

"Where's Rei?" She demanded of the green-tressed teen.

"And where has Lita gone?" Her eyes darted to Mina.

"Calm down, old blue." Jun Jun snickered as she stood up.

"Stop right there! Don't move!" Ami was determined to get to the bottom of this. Why was Mina in such a shocked state, and where had her other friends gone? Jun Jun would give her the answers. As the feeling came back to her legs with a jolt of heat, she noticed that Jun Jun was reaching into her pocket for something.

"Drop that!" She threatened as she got into her transformation pose.

"It's just an opening ball so I can get out of here. Don't get yourself all upset over it, doll." Jun Jun smirked and tossed the ball in the air higher and higher each time.

Mina reacted to the Amazoness' words with an angry face. Was she suddenly awakening and noticing that Ami was in possible danger, or, was it possibly that she didn't like Jun Jun calling her friend such a pet name?

"You're not going anywhere!" Ami yelled as she began to transform into Sailor Mercury.

Jun Jun turned slowly to face her as she bounced her ball on her hand. The ball was getting dangerously close of hitting the ceiling now.

"I haven't hurt anyone and I don't know where your friends are. Ves Ves probably took them to Nehellenia." The girl said almost nonchalantly.

"Let's not make a scene, huh? All I want is to get out of here in one piece without having to summon anything to kill you."

"Kill me?" Ami laughed as she got ready to attack.

Jun Jun sighed.

"Look, we all know that you need your precious leader to get anything done. We send a monster, she whines about it, you all attack, one of you gets hurt, and that's when she musters up the courage to kill the monster and save her precious pals." Her voice was mocking the scouts.

"Isn't that how it goes?"

Mina finally transformed and stood next to Ami.

"No one talks about Sailor Moon that way!" She yelled as her hand burned with desire to wrap Jun Jun in her love chain and let Ami finish her off.

Feeling the tension rising in the room, Jun Jun bounced her glass ball once more, with gusto, and let it skyrocket towards the ceiling. The ball began bouncing all around the room the second it touched the ceiling. It was almost hard to believe that it was made out of glass. Mina and Ami ducked and evaded frantically, trying to keep their skulls in one piece.

"See you later, sweet face." Jun Jun called out to Mina with a wink as her glass ball hit a wall and bounced back, going straight for her.

"No!" Mina yelled as worry filled her eyes. Jun Jun was just a villainess, why did she care if she perished from her own attack? Before any of them could react, the ball penetrated Jun Jun's chest and she got sucked into it, like a vortex. The ball even fell victim to its own suction and disappeared completely.

The sailor scouts took a step forward and looked around perplexedly.

"Is she really gone?" Mina asked with doubt.

"She is," Ami replied, "I don't sense her anywhere." Her chest heaved with worry. Not only were her friends missing, Serena absent, but the green villainess knew that with the sailor scouts broken apart, they wouldn't be able to defeat the quartet.

Mina sensed Ami's tension and softly reached for her arm and rested her hand on it, breaking her own transformation.

"I'm going to check for the others," her voice was soft as if not to startle Ami any further, she seemed so tense and fragile at the moment. Taking one last look at Ami, Mina peeked her head out of the room and walked out in her white mini skirt and orange tank top, closing the door behind her so no one would see Sailor Mercury. She carefully paced towards the bathroom, where she last remembered Rei and Lita heading off to. Her hand opened the door with caution, but she saw nothing. Rei's toothbrush was lying limply on the bathroom floor and a wet towel was falling lazily off the toilet seat. The faucet was still flowing and the bathroom window was ajar. Ves Ves had certainly taken Lita and Rei.

"Are they here?" Ami asked frightfully, wearing her street clothes once more as she entered the bathroom and feast her eyes on what she feared.

"Oh no, Mina!" She covered her mouth with a hand and felt her eyes begin to water.

"I know." Mina reached over and hugged her, rubbing her back vigorously and encouraging her to cry.

"We'll get them back, don't worry. Even if it's just you and I, we'll get them back." Her touch assured Ami and she remained in Mina's embrace for a few more minutes.

"Mina, did she hurt you?" Ami finally asked, feeling strong enough to stand on her own. If her team mate could hold her own, she would be no different.

"No," Mina shook her head. "She actually restrained me from going to the bathroom and stopping Ves Ves. I think she didn't want me hurt. I don't know why she didn't just kill me when I was paralyzed, but she just watched me and told me not to move. I..." Mina hesitated for a moment, not really knowing how to say this to Ami.

"I think she isn't like the other ones. She could have attacked and killed us both before we had even transformed, but, she didn't. She could have sent a lemure after us. It's like she said, without Serena here, things would have been hard. And now that Lita and Rei are gone... we wouldn't have made it out alive." It was hard for Mina to admit, but without the rest of the senshi, she was nothing.

Ami pulled her head away from Mina's shoulders and looked at her in the eyes.

"Mina, I think you may be right about the Amazon Quartet. There is something you need to know." Ami held Mina's shoulders firmly and then began the tale of her dream, where the villainesses where actually the future senshi, sent to protect Rini.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? It can get us killed." Jun Jun asked as uncertainty filled her.

"Don't look at me, I think this is as dumb an idea as any, but Para Para insisted on it." Ves Ves said as she removed a whip from her hip and looked over her shoulder menacingly at a camel that carried a large bag fastened tightly on its back.

"Be careful where you step," she threatened the gentle giant.

"We can't afford to drop our precious parcel."

"I don't know..." Jun Jun couldn't shake off the bad feeling.

"If Nehellenia catches us in the act... or if Cere Cere finds out about..."

"Shut up!" She was interrupted by her fiery haired sister.

"Look, I know all the things that can go wrong, but we've already kidnapped two of them and given hints to another one. It's too late to turn back now. Either we finish this the way Para Para wants and hope they'll believe us, or we face Cere Cere's wrath and our death in the hands of Nehellenia." Her hand tightened its grip around the whip.

"There's no turning back now." She repeated herself.

"It has to be done." There was a pause as Jun Jun opened the flap to a circus tent and gently encouraged the camel to enter inside. After checking to see if the coast was clear, she dropped the flap and they stepped into another dimension.

"We can keep them here, for now." Jun Jun said with little to no enthusiasm as Ves Ves cracked the whip a few times in the air to guide the camel through the darkness that surrounded them.

"Just pray that they cooperate."

"They can hear you, you know..." With a sigh, the red head set down her whip and set her hands on her hips.

"Come on now," She snapped her fingers and a row of lights lit up, one by one. The girls and the camel were standing in a big bedroom. On either side of the room there was a large, comfy bed, a fridge that stood idly in the center of the room, and behind Jun Jun stood a door that led to a small bathroom.

"You think this will hold them?"

She scoffed. "It better, we put a lot of time into this place. You know they can't escape, but they can trash it."

"If they trash it, I'll kill them." Ves Ves said through grit teeth. It was obvious that they had gone to great lengths to shape this dimension into an appropriate room size and furnished it well so that the scouts would feel welcome, or at least cared for. All in all, it would minimize the chances of them attacking them on the spot.

"Do you find it kind of funny that we retrieved the scouts that correspond to us?" Jun Jun smirked as she carelessly dropped the bag from the camel's back and smacked his hump so he'd move out of her way.

"I hadn't paid attention to that," Ves Ves said, somewhat annoyed and eager to get the job done with.

"Just let them out of the bag already. Nehellenia's going to wonder what we've been up to if we don't get back soon."

"You know that's not true. She thinks we're idiots and probably assumes we're out playing somewhere." Her hands undid the large knot atop the bag and she took a step back. The bag seemed to come to life with rapid, uncoordinated movements as Lita and Rei pulled themselves out, straining to breathe and sweating profusely.

"Sorry it was so hot in there, we tried to be quick."

"Ooh... play sounds nice." Ves Ves seemed to be enthralled by the idea of playing instead of working. She completely dismissed the sight of the breathless girls lying on the floor.

"Let's go, they can find everything themselves." She grabbed onto her sister's hand and onto the camel's restraints and led them both out through the walls.

"Enjoy the room, try not to make too much noise or you'll get us all killed." Jun Jun managed to say before her body was absorbed into the seemingly liquid walls.

"What did you do all that time with the blond one anyway?" Ves Ves' voice echoed into the room, dissipating into every corner before vanishing into the vast silence.

"What... just... happened?" Rei asked as she lay on her back, panting for dear life.

"No idea..." Lita responded as she too gasped and wiped the sweat off her heated face.

"But I'm really wishing that Serena was here with us... maybe things wouldn't be so bad."


End file.
